More than 5 people were killed and dozens more severely wounded in a huge blast and gunfire at Yemen's Aden airport after a plane carrying the newly formed government landed from Saudi Arabia to Yemen on Wednesday.
A local security source said three mortar shells landed on the airport's hall.
However, the cabinet members including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, as well as Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Said al-Jaber, were transferred safely to the city's presidential palace, the witnesses and Saudi media said.
Saudi state television Ekhbaria showed destroyed vehicles and smashed glass. Plumes of white smoke rose from the scene.
The newly formed cabinet unites the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi with southern separatists. The two groups are the main Yemeni factions in a southern-based, Saudi-backed alliance, fighting against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls the north.
The southern port city of Aden has been mired in violence because of a rift between the separatists and Hadi's government. The separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), which seeks independence for south Yemen, declared self rule in Aden earlier this year, triggering violent clashes and complicating U.N. efforts to forge a permanent ceasefire in the overall conflict.
The Saudi-led coalition announced earlier this month the new power-sharing cabinet that would include the separatists.
The cabinet landed from Riyadh where both parties negotiated for more than a year with Saudi mediation.
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