Headless bodies found in Aden

Eleven headless bodies have been found in a nature reserve in the southern Yemeni port of Aden, a local news website reported yesterday. According to Aden Al-Ghad, a security source in the city said that the corpses – all males – were found on Tuesday evening in Al-Hiswa reserve, west of the city.

It was not immediately clear who killed the men and why, but Aden Al-Ghad said the condition of the bodies suggested that they had been dumped there more than a month ago.

Yemen’s second largest city has been suffering from lawlessness, as armed groups including Daesh and Al-Qaeda continue to maintain some influence nearly a year and-a-half after supporters of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by Arab coalition troops, drove the Iran-backed Houthis out. Hadi’s government is struggling to restore security for the population of one million people, whose city is nominally under the control of the internationally-recognised government in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Last Saturday, a suicide bomber killed 50 people when he blew himself up at a military base in Aden; it was the latest of a series of attacks claimed by Daesh.