Journalist, child killed in explosion in Yemen: officials

A Yemeni journalist and her child were killed in an explosion that targeted her family’s vehicle on Tuesday in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, officials said. The blast was the latest to rock the seat of the internationally recognised government.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and authorities said an investigation was ongoing. Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed called the explosion a “terrorist attack" caused by an improvised explosive device stuck in the journalist's vehicle.

The explosion took place in Aden’s neighbourhood of Khormaksar when Rasha Abdalla and her family were heading to a doctor, the officials said. Abdalla, who works for the United Arab Emirates-based Asharq satellite television channel, was pregnant.

Abdalla and her child Jawad died at the scene, while her husband Mahmoud al-Attomy, also a journalist, was seriously wounded and hospitalised in critical condition, they said. Three passersby were also wounded, they added.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists.

The coastal city of Aden has been rocked by several explosions in recent years that were blamed on local affiliates of militant groups al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also targeted the city with ballistic missiles and explosives-laden drones.

Last month, at least eight people were killed by a car bomb close to a security checkpoint outside Aden’s international airport in Khormaksar. No group claimed responsibility for that attack.

Aden has been the seat of the internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi since the Houthis took over the capital of Sanaa in 2014, triggering Yemen’s civil war.

The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed by the United States, to try restore the government to power. Despite a relentless air campaign and ground fighting, the war has fallen largely into a stalemate, and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.