Unknown gunmen launched a brazen ambush on the motorcade of Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan on Monday, killing at least five security officers and wounding two others in a fierce firefight on a vital highway linking the besieged province to the rest of Yemen. Provincial spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Rahman confirmed the assault took place on a key route frequently targeted amid the country’s decade-long civil war.

The attackers opened fire with automatic weapons as the convoy passed through a contested stretch, triggering an intense exchange that left two assailants dead. Governor Shamsan emerged unscathed, but the coordinated strike underscored the persistent insecurity plaguing Taiz, a strategic southwestern stronghold that has endured a suffocating Houthi blockade since 2016.

No organisation has claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt, though the region remains a volatile fault line between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, Islah party militias, and factions loyal to the internationally recognised government. The province’s capital sits at the crossroads of critical east-west and north-south highways, making control of Taiz a prized objective for all warring parties.

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In an official statement, the governor’s office vowed that security and military forces are pursuing the perpetrators and will bring them to justice. The attack comes despite a fragile détente between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia that has reduced large-scale clashes in recent years, highlighting how local power struggles continue to exact a heavy toll.

Yemen’s conflict, now in its eleventh year, began when Houthi rebels seized Sanaa in 2014 and forced the government into exile, prompting a Saudi-led intervention the following year. The stalemated war has killed hundreds of thousands and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with Taiz remaining one of its most brutal and protracted frontlines.

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