SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s foreign ministry on Thursday condemned the attack on Aden airport in Yemen, which killed more than 20 people.
Loud blasts and gunfire were heard shortly after a plane landed carrying a newly formed Saudi-backed cabinet for government-held parts of Yemen. A local security source said three mortar shells had landed on the airport’s hall.
At least 22 people were killed and 50 others were wounded in the attack.
“Iraq expresses strong condemnation of the bombing that affected Aden airport in Yemen … We offer our condolence to the brotherly Yemen,” the Iraqi foreign ministry said in a tweet.
“[We] affirm Iraq’s position in rejecting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and its standing with the international community in confronting terrorism,” it tweeted.
Hours after the attack, a second explosion was heard around Aden’s Maasheq presidential palace where the cabinet members including Maeen, as well as the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammad Said al-Jaber, had been taken to safety, residents and local media said.
The Saudi-led coalition said it had downed an explosive-laden Houthi drone that was targeting the presidential palace.
The new cabinet unites the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi with southern separatists, intended to fulfil a Saudi aim of ending a feud among Riyadh’s allies.
The two groups are the main Yemeni factions in a southern-based, Saudi-backed alliance fighting the Houthis who control the north, including the capital Sanaa.
