Gulf of Aden Security Review - June 10, 2016

Yemen: Militants detonate VBIED in Aden; UN Special Envoy to reveal international peace plan in Kuwait; PM Bin Daghir returns to unrest in Aden; popular resistance fighters attack al Houthi patrol in Hajjah; gunman attempts assassination of Salafi leader in Taiz

Horn of Africa: SNA attacks al Shabaab base following al Shabaab ambush in Tiyeglow, Bakool region; al Shabaab shells SNA base in Bulo-Burde, Hiraan region

Yemen Security Brief

• Militants detonated a VBIED in al Mansoura district, Aden city on June 10 in the Caltex roundabout. The blast destroyed the car, but no casualties have been reported. The target of the attack is unknown.[1]

• Yemeni officials at the peace talks in Kuwait predicted that UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will release an international peace plan for Yemen in the next two days. The source claimed that the delegations would go home to review the plan and return to Kuwait after the end of Ramadan.[2]

• The return of Prime Minister Ahmad Obeid bin Daghir to Aden coincided with the outbreak of clashes between unknown combatants in the vicinity of Aden International Airport. There are unconfirmed rumors that Emirati armed forces are allowing Aden’s security to worsen in order to undermine Bin Daghir. Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi replaced former deputy Khaled Bahah with bin Daghir two months ago. The Emirati government reportedly supports Bahah as a more competent and moderate alternative.[3]

• Popular resistance fighters ambushed a patrol of at least 15 al Houthi fighters in Hajjah governorate on June 9. The al Houthi vehicle was travelling through the area of al Raygha, Bani Qays district in southern Hajjah governorate at the time of the attack, which wounded several fighters.[4] 

• A gunman attempted to assassinate a senior Salafi leader of the popular resistance in Taiz known as “Abu Abbas.” The assailant killed Abu Abbas’s driver, but Abu Abbas survived.[5]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

• Somali National Army (SNA) forces raided an al Shabaab base in a village near Tiyeglow, Bakool region on June 9, possibly in response to an earlier al Shabaab ambush on a SNA convoy near Tiyeglow. Government troops killed at least 21 militants and suffered 11 casualties during the raid.[6]

• Al Shabaab militants fired mortars at an SNA base in Bulo-Burde in Hiraan region on June 9. Bulo-Burde’s district commissioner said the militants shelled the base in an effort to prevent government forces from participating in a counterattack against al Shabaab at Halgan, Hiraan region. Militants attacked an Ethiopian AMISOM base in Halgan on June 9, killing 60 soldiers.[7]