Gunmen blow up security vehicle in Yemen's Aden

ADEN, Yemen, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A security vehicle of a senior officer in the elite Republican Guard forces was blown up Thursday morning by unknown gunmen in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, with no immediate reports of casualties, a police official told Xinhua.

Gunmen seemed to have been monitoring the security vehicle belonging to a senior Republican Guard officer which was parking near his home in the Sheikh Othman district, the local police official said on condition of anonymity.

"The gunmen believed to be from the al-Qaida terrorist group had planted something like a bomb or remote-controlled explosive device which blew up the vehicle next to Aden's International Airport," the officer said.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

Witnesses told Xinhua anonymously that "the security vehicle was severely damaged after being hit by an explosive believed to be either grenade or land-mine."

"The outside walls of the officer's home were partially destroyed," the witnesses said.

The latest incident came just four days after dozens of al- Qaida fighters carried out a massive assault against a Yemeni military base in the outskirts of neighboring Abyan province, killing more than 180 soldiers and looting the base along with its heavy weaponry, tanks and armored vehicles, according to senior army officials.

On Wednesday, the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing threatened to execute a total of 73 army hostages if the government did not immediately release its jailed members, a leading member of the group told Xinhua.

Yemen's southern and eastern regions have recently been rocked by a string of suicide car bombings targeting government buildings and military officials. The government authorities usually accuse militants of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of committing the crimes and masterminding the attacks.