Death toll in Yemen airport blast rises to 25, over 100 injured

The death toll in an explosion that hit a main airport in Yemen's southern city of Aden has climbed to 25, a Yemeni government official said on Thursday.

Some 110 others were injured in Wednesday's blast that took place shortly after a new unity government arrived at the airport from Saudi Arabia, Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh tweeted. On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said 22 people were killed and 50 others injured in the attack that the government blamed on Yemen's Iran-linked Houthi rebels.

"Evidence and indications are that the Houthi militias were the ones that targeted the airport with three rockets, using technologies it used in previous crimes," the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday.

So far, there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Aden has been Yemen's temporary capital since the Houthis overran the capital Sana'a in late 2014 in a devastating power struggle.

Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Haydan on Thursday said the government would was working to repair the airport and get it operating "very soon".

"Such terrorist acts will not discourage the government from continuing its efforts from the temporary capital Aden," Haydan said during a tour of the airport, according to Yemen's state news agency Saba.

Haydan is the head of a government committee investigating the blast. The explosion killed at least one journalist and injured 10 others who were at the airport to cover the government members' arrival, Yemeni Minister of Information Moammar al-Eryani said on Twitter. He called on the international community to blacklist the Houthis as a terrorist group, blaming them for Wednesday's attack. The International Committee of the Red Cross said three of its staffers were killed.

On Saturday, Yemeni President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi swore in the new government that was formed under a power-sharing deal brokered by Saudi Arabia last year.

The 24-strong government includes members of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) as part of a bid to end a power struggle between the secessionists and loyalists to Hadi.

The new government represents Yemen's northern and southern areas with an equal number of members from each region.

The STC, formed in 2017, is backed by the United Arab Emirates, while Hadi's government is backed by Saudi Arabia.

Both are part of the Saudi-led coalition formed in 2015 to fight the Houthi rebels.

Yemen's conflict has pushed the impoverished Arab country to the brink of famine and devastated its health facilities. (dpa)