A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed six from Security belt forces on the outskirts of the Yemeni city of Aden on Friday, witnesses said, part of a surge of violence that has complicated a near five-year-old war and undermined UN peace efforts, Reuters reports.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on a patrol of Security Belt forces.

The separatists and the Yemeni government forces are both part of a Saudi-led coalition battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which took over most of Yemen’s cities in 2014.

Militant groups have also sought to take advantage of the turmoil. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks during the war, though there was no independent confirmation of its involvement in Friday’s blast.

The suicide bomber struck in Aden’s northern Dar Saad neighbourhood .

The UAE said it had carried out “precise and direct” strikes on Thursday on what it called terrorist militias which it said had attacked Saudi-led coalition forces fighting at Aden’s airport.

Other parts of Aden were largely quiet on Friday after days of heavy fighting, with shops, restaurants and bakeries reopening and people attending Friday prayers.

The Saudi-led, Sunni Muslim coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis, who ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government from power in the capital Sanaa.

Divisions have spread in a war which is widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Muslim regional rival Iran.

“The recent escalation of violence in Aden is a clear indication that once more, political and military interests are overriding the well-being and safety of the Yemeni people,” Jason Lee, Acting Country Director of Save the Children in Yemen, said in a statement.AFP