A British citizen is reportedly among the victims of a car bomb explosion earlier today in the oil port and refinery city of Aden, Yemen.
According to Reuters, an explosion in a booby-trapped car killed a foreign maritime worker outside the central Ma’alla Plaza in Yemen’s southern port city citing confirmation from a port official and witnesses.
“We can confirm that a British national has been killed in Aden,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement. It did not name the person pending notification of the family, according to the BBC. He has subsequently been named as David Mockett.
A witness, Abdullah al-Sharafi, described the aftermath of the explosion: “I heard the explosion, I hurried there and I found the car in pieces,” he told the AFP news agency.
Witnesses said the car exploded when the driver turned on the engine.
The explosion follows a suicide attack made in the same city at the end of June. A car bomb believed to have been set off by a suicide attacker killed three Yemeni security personnel in that attack.
Aden residents have grown fearful of a possible attempt by Islamic militants to seize control of the strategic port city.
More details to follow.
