ADEN — A journalist working as a correspondent for Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya television was killed late Wednesday after a bomb planted on his car detonated, the network announced Thursday.
The victim, Mohammed Aydah, was a Yemeni national who worked for both Al Arabiya and its sister channel Al Hadath. He was killed in the city of Mukalla, located in Yemen’s eastern Hadramout governorate.
Al Arabiya reported that local security authorities in Mukalla had alerted Aydah roughly a month before his death that he faced a credible threat to his life, though no further details were provided. As of Thursday, no group had claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The assassination occurred amid a backdrop of political instability in the country. Tensions had recently escalated following clashes between Saudi-backed forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government and UAE-backed separatists, with fighting flaring between November and January. During that period, control of Mukalla shifted between the separatist group — known as the Southern Transitional Council — and the Saudi-backed forces, who currently hold the city.
The Southern Transitional Council issued a statement condemning the killing, describing the attack as evidence of deeper security problems in Hadramout. The group attributed those problems to the dismantling of units under its command that had previously helped drive al Qaeda out of the region in 2016.
Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential leadership council, ordered the creation of a high-level joint committee to investigate the killing. He pledged that authorities would pursue those responsible with full force.
Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi forces seized the capital, Sanaa, triggering intervention by a Saudi-led military coalition.
The Committee to Protect Journalists considers Yemen one of the most hazardous countries in the world for members of the press.
