Five bodyguards killed in Taiz armed ambush
LAHJ, Nov. 24 (YPA) – Five bodyguards of the pro-coalition governor of Taiz, Nabil Shamsan, were killed and others wounded on Monday in an ambush by tribal gunmen from the al-Maqatirah district of Lahj province.
Local sources confirmed that al-Maqatirah tribesmen ambushed the convoy of the governor, Nabil Shamsan, in the Najd al-Bard area.
Shamsan was accompanied by Alawi al-Jabouli, a man wanted by the tribes and brother of Abu Bakr al-Jabouli, commander of the Islah Party-affiliated Fourth Brigade, as they traveled towards Tur al-Bahah in Lahj.
The sources reported three wounded who were transported to hospitals for treatment, according to initial reports.
The tribesmen’s ambush was in retaliation against Alawi al-Jabouli for the killing of one of their members, Wael Wadi’ al-Maqati, who was also Shamsan’s bodyguard, two months prior, the sources stated, adding that Wael’s brother, Abu Bakr al-Jabouli, had refused to hand him over to the authorities.
Some sources explained that the people of Al-Maqatra targeted Shamsan’s convoy, mistakenly believing it to be the convoy of the leader Al-Jabouli. This led to clashes between tribal gunmen and the governor’s bodyguards, who were traveling in military vehicles.
The sources indicated that Islah factions within the Fourth Brigade deployed reinforcements to the area, stormed several homes, and surrounded villages, amidst escalating tensions that threaten renewed clashes with the tribes.
Alawi al-Jabouli, brother of the commander of the Fourth Brigade affiliated with the Islah Party, killed Wael Wadi’ al-Muqatri at the end of last August after the latter resisted an attempted rape. This prompted the victim’s family to seek revenge against the perpetrator.
In a subsequent development, residents of al-Muqatra appealed to the people of al-Subaiha, al-Wazi’iyah, and al-Hajariya to stand with the al-Muqatra tribes against what they described as “al-Jabouli’s gangs who have inflicted misery upon them”.
The appeal also called upon the people of al-Hajariya, al-Subaiha, and al-Wazi’iyah to support and assist the people of al-Muqatra in eliminating the elements that are wreaking havoc in the areas of al-Muqatra and al-Shamayatayn, as well as to al-Wazi’iyah.
This appeal came after the commander of the Fourth Brigade in the Tur al-Baha Axis, backed by the coalition, deployed military forces and conducted raids on citizens’ homes in al-Muqatra. These actions followed an attack on the convoy of Taiz governor Nabil Shamsan by gunmen believed to be from al-Muqatra.
AA