Pro-UAE commander killed in Abyan explosive device blast

ABYAN, Aug 10 (YPA) – A commander in the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) militias was killed on Thursday in Mudiyah district of Abyan province, south of Yemen.

Sources filmier with the matter revealed the leader of the “Security Belt” factions of the STC, Abdul Latif Al-Sayed, was targeted, with a number of leaders, by an explosive device planted in his car in Wadi Omran of the district, amid accusations that the Emirati intelligence was behind the assassination.

The sources indicated that the assassination came a week after he was appointed commander of “Security Belt” factions in the province.

Al-Sayed’s funeral quickly took place hours after his assassination in Batis area, in the presence of a limited number of leaders of the STC factions in the province.

Among the killed were also the head of the so-called “Security Belt Staff” Salah al-Yousifi al-Yafei and the tribal sheikh affiliated with the STC, Mohammed Karid al-Jaadani, in addition to three of Al-Sayed companions, the sources added.

The leader Al-Sayed was one of the most prominent leaders of Al-Qaeda factions that brought down the city of Ja’ar in Khanfar area of Abyan in the beginning of 2011. After the war on Yemen in March 2015, he had became one of the most senior commanders of the UAE-funded factions in Abyan.

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