IS claims killing of Aden governor in Yemen car bombing

A statement posted on Twitter by the group said it was behind the blast that struck the convoy of Jaafar Saad as it travelled through Aden's Tawahi neighbourhood early on Sunday. 

The attack killed Saad and four of of his bodyguards, the sources said.  

Tawahi has in recent months become a stronghold for militants including al-Qaeda, whose fighters have expanded their presence across the port city. 

Saad was only recently appointed governor and was known to be close to President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who returned to Aden last month after several months in exile in Riyadh. 

Police Colonel al-Khadher Ali Ahmed was also gunned down in a separate attack early on Sunday. It is not known if the two incidents are linked. 

Pro-Hadi forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have battled Houthi militias and their allies in Yemen since March, after the Houthis overran the capital Sanaa and advanced south, forcing Hadi's government to flee.

Since the conflict escalated, the Islamic State group has managed to expand its foothold in the country, staging a series of deadly bombings, usually aimed at Shia targets such as mosques. 

Saad's death comes a day after the UN envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, held talks with Hadi in Aden aimed at kickstarting peace talks between the warring sides ahead of UN-backed talks in Geneva on 12 December. 

"Mr Ould Cheikh Ahmed is seeking the agreement of President Hadi to convene the talks in Geneva on 12 December," a senior official close to the president told AFP.

"But this mission will be difficult," said the source, accusing the rebels of dragging their feet on implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which calls for them to withdraw from occupied territory.

Foreign Minister Abdel Malak al-Mekhlafi told AFP: "The putschists are refusing to lay down their arms or to allow the government to carry out its duties" from Sanaa.

"They have not announced their list of negotiators [for the talks] and are trying to escalate the situation on the ground by bombing residential districts of Taiz," a strategic city in southwest Yemen under siege by the rebels and their allies, he said.

In a protest sent to the United Nations, Yemen's minister in charge of human rights, Ezzedine al-Isbahi, condemned the "massacres and atrocities" allegedly committed in Taiz by the Houthis that he said had killed 33 civilians last week, including four children.

The foreign minister denounced the Houthis and their allies for having filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Sanaa against Hadi and his aides over their request for a Saudi-led military intervention that had "damaged the independence" of Yemen.

More than 5,700 people have been killed in Yemen, almost half of them civilians, since a Saudi-led air campaign was launched in March in support of the government, according to the United Nations.