Gunmen opened fire Monday on the governor of Taiz`s motorcade, killing at least five security officers and wounding two others, authorities said. The attack, targeting Nabil Shamsan, happened on a key road linking Taiz to the rest of the country, Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, a spokesman for the province, told The Associated Press. He added that two assailants were killed in the shootout.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, the governor`s office said security and military forces were working to bring those behind the attack to justice. The province`s capital, also named Taiz, has been a battleground pitting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and other militias backed by the Islamist Islah party against each other as well as other factions in Yemen`s civil war.
Taiz, in the southwest, is the junction of two crucial highways: an east-west road leading to the coastal city of Mocha on the Red Sea, and another north-south, to Sanaa via Dhamar and Ibb provinces. It has been under Houthi blockade since 2016 as part of their war against the internationally recognised Yemeni government.
The country`s brutal war began in 2014, when the Houthis marched from their northern stronghold of Saada province and forced the internationally recognised government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition that included the United Arab Emirates entered the Yemen war the following year in an attempt to restore the government.
The war has been in a stalemate in recent years, and the rebels reached a deal with Saudi Arabia that stopped their attacks on the kingdom in return for ceasing the Saudi-led strikes on their territories.
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