Senior Yemeni security official assassinated in bomb blast in Taiz

By Mohammed Sameai and Mohammad Sio

SANAA, Yemen / ISTANBUL (AA) – A senior Yemeni security officer was killed Thursday in a bomb attack in the southwestern city of Taiz, security officials said.

Col. Abdullah al-Naqeeb, the police chief of Taiz’s al-Taiziyah district, died after an explosive device planted in his car exploded as he drove through Jamal Street in the city center, an unnamed local security source told Anadolu.

He was taken to al-Thawra public hospital but later died of his wounds, the source said.

The Interior Ministry confirmed al-Naqeeb’s death in a statement, saying the officer was targeted with an explosive device. Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan said security forces in Taiz were pursuing those responsible to bring them to justice.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the killing.

Taiz province, Yemen’s most populous, has long been a flashpoint in the country’s war, which began more than a decade ago between government-aligned forces and the Houthi group that seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

The war has devastated much of Yemen’s infrastructure and fueled what the UN describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.