Al Qaeda bomb attack on Iranian ambassador’s house in Yemen kills six

SANAA // A car bomb planted by Al Qaeda militants exploded near the home of Iran’s ambassador to Yemen on Wednesday, killing six people and injuring seventeen.

Ambassador Hossein Niknam was not at home when the attack took place in the diplomatic district of Hada in the capital Sanaa.

A guard inside the residence and five bystanders – including the son of an employee at the residence – were killed, according to two interior interior ministry officials.

The blast punched a hole in the ambassador’s residence and heavily damaged nearby homes and cars.

Mr Niknam is new to the post and presented his credentials to the Yemeni foreign ministry within the last week, according to Iranian state media.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that the ambassador was unharmed.

“The Sanaa explosion didn’t harm any Iranian diplomats,” Mr Abdollahian said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap), Yemen’s local branch of the terror group, later issued a statement on Twitter claiming responsibility for the attack on the ambassador’s house, located next to the headquarters of Yemen’s main intelligence agency. The group has carried out similar attacks in Sanaa.

The car bombing comes after Shiite rebels known as Houthis captured the capital in September, routing fighters loyal to the Islamist Islah party and its tribal allies. The Houthis are accused of receiving backing from Shiite-dominated Iran, something the rebels deny.

Local Al Qaeda militants have been battling Houthis in the central region where the Shiite group and its allies aim to expand their territory.

Washington views Aqap as the most dangerous branch of the terror group as it has been linked to a number of foiled or botched attacks on the US.

The US has conducted a campaign of drone strikes in the country targeting suspected militants and offers aid to the country’s military. Civilian casualties in the strikes have angered many.

The latest attack was not the first targeting Iran in Yemen.

On January 18, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Assadi was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting outside the ambassador’s residence in what Tehran said was a kidnap attempt.

Al Qaeda Sunni extremists are still holding embassy staffer Nour Ahmad Nikbakht who was abducted in July last year.

* With reporting by Hakim Almasmari in Sanaa, Associated Press and Reuters

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The biog

Hometown: Cairo

Age: 37

Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror

Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing

Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Kumulus Water

Started: 2021

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Cases of coronavirus in the GCC as of March 15

Saudi Arabia – 103 infected, 0 dead, 1 recovered

UAE – 86 infected, 0 dead, 23 recovered

Bahrain – 210 infected, 0 dead, 44 recovered

Kuwait – 104 infected, 0 dead, 5 recovered

Qatar – 337 infected, 0 dead, 4 recovered

Oman – 19 infected, 0 dead, 9 recovered

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• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.

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• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.

• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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