Gulf of Aden Security Review - August 2, 2019

Yemen: Islamic State in Yemen claims responsibility for SVBIED attack in Aden; AQAP storms base of UAE-backed forces in Abyan governorate; al Houthi movement claims to have fired new ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia

Horn of Africa: Military court in Puntland sentences Islamic State militant to death

Yemen Security Brief:

The Islamic State in Yemen claimed responsibility for an August 1 suicide attack on a police station in Aden port city in southern Yemen. The attackers used multiple suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (SVBIEDs) to attack a police station in Aden’s Omar al Mokhtar neighborhood, killing 11 people and injuring 29 others. The Islamic State in Yemen said that the attack was part of the Islamic State’s “Battle of Attrition” and claimed that the attack targeted UAE-backed al Hizam Security Forces.[1]

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) stormed an al Hizam base in al Mahfad district in Abyan governorate in southern Yemen on August 2. The militants killed at least 19 soldiers and remained in the base for several hours before UAE-backed Yemeni forces and Saudi-led coalition aircraft forced the militants to flee.[2]

The al Houthi movement claimed on August 2 that it had used a new third-generation medium-range “Borkan” ballistic missile in an attack on Saudi Arabia the day prior. The al Houthi movement claimed on August 1 that it had fired an undisclosed missile at a military base near al Dammam city in eastern Saudi Arabia. The missile attack is unconfirmed.[3]

Horn of Africa Security Brief:

A military court sentenced an Islamic State in Somalia militant to death in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia, on August 1. The court found the militant guilty of killing five people in Boosaaso, a port city and Puntland’s commercial capital, as well as in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in 2018 and 2019.[4]

Visit our Yemen, Somalia and Saudi Arabia story streams.