Gunmen opened fire on the Taiz convoy governor on Monday, killing at least five security officers and wounding two others, authorities said.
The attack targeting Nabil Shamsan took place on a key road connecting Taiz to the rest of the country, provincial spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Rahman told the Associated Press. He added that two attackers were killed in the shootout.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The governor’s office said in a statement that security and military forces were working to bring those behind the attack to justice.
The provincial capital, also named Taiz, has been a battleground pitting Iran-backed Houthi rebels against other militias backed by the Islamist Islah party, as well as other factions in Yemen’s civil war.
Taiz, in the southwest, is the junction of two key highways: an east-west road leading to the coastal city of Mocha on the Red Sea, and another north-south, to Sanaa through the provinces of Dhamar and Ibb. Since 2016, it has been under blockade by the Houthis as part of their war against the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
The country’s brutal war began in 2014 when the Houthis marched from their northern stronghold of Saada province, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition that included the United Arab Emirates entered the war in Yemen the following year in an attempt to restore the government.
The war has been at a standstill in recent years, and the rebels reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia that halted their attacks on the kingdom in exchange for an end to Saudi-led attacks on their territory.
