Explosion hits Al-Mualla, Yemeni army controls on Jabal al-Nar

A violent explosion shook, in the early hours of Friday morning, the city of Mualla in the Yemeni capital Aden. Local sources said the explosion was caused by gunmen riding in a car throwing a bomb at a gathering of young people next to the Taj Kenya Plaza Hotel in Al-Maala. The sources added that the explosion resulted in the death of one citizen and five others injured and were transferred to the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni army and the Popular Resistance, supported by the Arab Coalition, managed to control Al-Nar and Nabati mountains and many areas in the western coast of Yemen. This comes after the success of the legitimate forces in Yemen from taking control of the western side of Khalid bin Walid strategic camp west of Taiz on Wednesday evening.

In Abyan, unidentified gunmen, most likely linked to al-Qaeda, assassinated a security official in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan on Thursday evening, security sources said. The sources added that the gunmen opened fire on Colonel Ali Saleh Haidarah, commander of the security belt forces in "Shakra" area of ​​Abyan province, killing him immediately and wounding two of his companions.

One person was killed and three soldiers wounded on Thursday in violent clashes between gunmen and security forces in Khor Maksar area east of Aden. Local sources said that violent clashes took place on Thursday between gunmen who tried to remove detainees from Aden security department by force, prompting Aden police to engage with them with medium and light weapons heard echoing around the city.

Armed protesters cut the streets of several areas of Aden to press the security forces to release a number of detainees, and the situation later evolved into gun battles after security forces tried to open main roads. According to the preliminary results, one of the gunmen, Aseel Abed, was shot and three other soldiers were wounded in the clashes, which lasted for about three hours continuous and expanded to include large parts of the districts of Khor Maksar and Mansoura. By evening, the clashes had stopped after a special security force intervened to disperse them, and traffic began to return to normal in the streets of the city.

The spokesman for the Aden security department,Abdulrahman al-Naqib, said the gunmen closed Thursday major roads in the neighborhoods of Arish, Khor Maksar and Mansoura, which obstructed the traffic and disrupt the interests of citizens, where employees were unable to go to their work and students to their schools and colleges.

Al-Naqib added that terrorist elements participated in the shooting of security men, and several of them tried to inflame the situation by using loudspeakers in the mosques to summon their supporters to confront the security forces of the capital Aden.

On the other hand, the Supreme Political Council of Houthi, in northern Yemen, decided, on Tuesday, to appoint one of the Shiites linked to the "Iranian dynasties" and received his education in Iran as Mufti of Yemen, leaving a reaction of anger, and a wave of anger and condemnation on the faces of Yemenis, the majority of whom belong to the Sunni community.

This decision to appoint Shamsuddin caused widespread anger in the provinces controlled by Houthis, such as Taiz, Hodeidah, Ibb and other governorates, forcing Houthis to retreat from the appointment of Mufti and Ifta board.

The Houthis and Saleh party have been trying to form a new Ifta board to strengthen their influence in judicial and religious institutions after controlling all the security and military facilities in the capital, Sana'a, since they seized control in September 2014.