Blast at Aden airport kills 25, wounds 110: Yemeni officials
Sanaa: A large explosion struck the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, shortly after a plane carrying the newly formed Cabinet landed there, security officials said.
At least 25 people were killed and 110 wounded in the blast.
Yemen's internationally recognised government said Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport. Rebel officials did not answer phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. No one on the government plane was hurt.
The officials later reported another explosion close to a palace in the city where the Cabinet members were transferred following the airport attack.
The Saudi-led coalition later shot down a bomb-laden drone that attempted to target the palace, according to Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV channel.
The Cabinet reshuffle was seen as a major step toward closing a dangerous rift between the government of embattled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates.
Hadi's government and the separatists are nominal allies in Yemen's years-long civil war that pits the Saudi-led, US-backed military coalition against the Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen as well as the country's capital, Sanaa.
AP footage from the scene at the airport showed members of the government delegation disembarking as the blast shook the grounds.
Many ministers rushed back inside the plane or ran down the stairs, seeking shelter. Thick smoke rose into the air from near the terminal building.
Officials at the scene said they saw bodies lying on the tarmac and elsewhere at the airport.
Yemeni Communication Minister Naguib al-Awg, who was on the plane, told the AP that he heard two explosions, suggesting they were drone attacks. Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed and the others were quickly whisked from the airport to the Mashiq Palace.
Military and security forces sealed off the area around the the palace.
"It would have been a disaster if the plane was bombed, al-Awg said, insisting the plane was the target of the attack as it was supposed to land earlier.
Prime Minister Saeed tweeted that he and his Cabinet were safe and unhurt. He called the explosions a cowardly terrorist act that was part of the war on the Yemeni state and our great people.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak blamed the Houthis for the attacks.
His ministry said in a statement later that the rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport, and launched drone attacks at the palace, the Cabinet's headquarters. They did not provide evidence.
Health Minister Qasem Buhaibuh said in a tweet the attacks at the airport killed least 25 people and wounded 110 others, suggesting the death toll could increase further because some of the wounds were serious.
Images shared on social media from the scene showed rubble and broken glass strewn about near the airport building and at least two lifeless bodies, one of them charred, lying on the ground. In another image, a man tries to help another man whose clothes were torn to get up from the ground.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said three of its workers were killed in the airport blast: two Yemeni nationals and a Rwandan. Three other workers were wounded. ICRC workers were at the airport transiting with other civilians when the blast took place, it said.
"This is a tragic day for the ICRC and for the people of Yemen, said Dominik Stillhart, ICRC's director of operations.
Yemeni Belqees television said its reporter Adeeb al-Ganabi was also killed in the airport blast. Information Minister Moammer al-Iryani said at least 10 other journalists were wounded.
A statement from Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the Secretary-General condemns the deplorable attack on Aden airport shortly after the arrival of the newly formed Yemeni cabinet, which killed and wounded dozens of people.
Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates' minister of state for foreign affairs, said the attack on Aden's airport was meant to destroy the power-sharing deal between Yemen's internationally recognized government and the southern separatists.
US Ambassador in Yemen Christopher Henzel said the U.S. condemned the attacks in Aden.
We stand with the Yemeni people as they strive for peace, and we support the new Yemeni Government as it works towards a better future for all Yemenis, he said.
Egypt, Jordan and other Arab and Western nations also condemned the airport attack.
The Yemeni ministers were returning to Aden from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, after being sworn in last week as part of a reshuffle following a deal with the separatists.
Yemen's internationally recognized government has worked mostly from self-imposed exile in Riyadh during the country's years-long civil war.
The Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, described the attack as a cowardly terrorist act targeting the Yemeni people, their security and stability.
Despite the disappointment and confusion caused by those who create death and destruction, the peace agreement between the government and southern separatists will go forward, he said. (AP) SNE
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
