![Jaafar Mohamed Saad](https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/566460a684307621008b7c79-1624-970/screen shot 2015-12-06 at 11.20.48 am.png)
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Jaafar Mohamed Saad.
"Islamic State fighters were able on Sunday morning to assassinate the governor of Aden, Maj Gen Jaafar Mohamed Saad ... fighters had parked a car filled with explosives in the Tawahi district and detonated it as the governor's convoy passed which led to his death along with ten of his companions," an ISIS statement said.
According to The Guardian, the death of Jaafar Mohamed Saad is "one of the highest profile attacks by the terror group's affiliate in the war-torn country."
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Saad was a supporter of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had fled to Saudi Arabia after Iranian-backed Houthi fighters overthrew his government in March, launching a civil war that has left an estimated 80% of Yemen's population, displaced or in need of humanitarian assistance.
The city of Aden has been under Saudi-led coalition control for months, but there had been frequent fighting leading up to Saad's death.
"He was blocked from getting to his office several times in the past weeks and his movement in the city was very restricted. To a lot of people in Aden, this attack does not come as much of a surprise," a Yemeni political analyst, Hisham al-Omeisy, told Aljazeera.