A car rigged with explosives and carrying five men pulled up to a military checkpoint in the Yemeni district of Mudiyah in Abyan, military officials said. Armed with explosive belts, four attackers were killed by soldiers after they failed to blow themselves up in front of the security headquarters in Mudiyah, Officer Fawaz al-Shabhi said. The fifth man, a suicide-bomber, then detonated his explosive in the vehicle outside the checkpoint, killing four soldiers and injuring around ten others from the Yemeni army. "At first a suicide-bomber detonated a car filled with explosives near the headquarters of the Yemeni troops in Mudiyah district of Abyan province, making way for a number of attackers to start their assault," a military official said on condition of anonymity. Shabhi meanwhile stressed that the security situation is under control in Mudiyah, and that the failed terrorist operation came in retaliation to heavy blows received by these groups in all districts of the governorate. He said that the military operations will continue until all the areas and cities of Abyan are declared free of terrorist elements. Military campaigns to combat terrorism in Abyan, backed by Arab coalition forces, were launched in late July and succeeded in defeating terrorists in Abyan, where 90 percent of the cities were under the control of Yemeni security forces. On his hand, Yemen’s foreign minister Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi reiterated accusations that Iran is threatening stability and spreading chaos in the entire region.
During his meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield in Riyadh, Mekhlafi said Tehran seeks to replace the state with sects and armies with militias in order for its project to sow chaos lives on. On the other hand, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani met at his office on Monday with UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. During the meeting, both parties discussed the latest political, security and humanitarian developments in Yemen, efforts being exerted by the envoy to revive the process of political negotiations in the country on the basis of the GCC initiative and the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference and UN Security Council resolution 2216. Zayani stressed the GCC’s support of the efforts exerted by Ould Cheikh to revive the political process in Yemen and reach a political solution that guarantees the security, stability and sovereignty of Yemen and end its people’s suffering, said a statement from his office. He said that the international community should seek more humanitarian aid to be delivered to Yemen.