ADEN, Jan 22, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi-backed armed group killed five in Yemen's southern city of Aden, officials said on Wednesday, injuring the commander of the government-allied unit.

"The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others," said Yemen's Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba.

A security source told AFP that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja'awla area in the north of Aden exploded as Shukri's convoy passed by.

Shukri survived the attack, though a medical source told AFP he had sustained shrapnel wounds in his leg.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, which comes after clashes in the south between rival factions of Yemen's government.

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen condemned the convoy attack and, in a statement posted on X, affirmed its support for "Yemeni security efforts to pursue those involved in this criminal act."

The US Embassy in Yemen also condemned the "unprovoked attack".

Yemen's internationally recognised government is a patchwork of groups held together by their opposition to the Iran-backed Houthis, who ousted them from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and now rule much of the country's north.

The Houthis have been at war with the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

Fissures in the government-run south came to a head when UAE-backed separatists took over two provinces in December, triggering air strikes by Saudi warplanes and a counter-offensive by pro-Saudi militias.

Pro-Saudi forces have since taken control of all of southern Yemen after the UAE withdrew its forces.

The government and its presidential body have since undergone a purge.