ADEN/SANAA: A car bombing claimed by Daesh (ISIS) Sunday killed the governor of Yemen’s second city Aden, a day after the U.N.’s envoy visited to press for long-delayed peace talks.

The militant group tweeted that it was behind a blast that hit the convoy of Jaafar Saad in the Tawahi neighborhood of the major port, killing him and eight bodyguards.

In a statement carried by the official Saba news agency, Aden security chief Gen. Mohamed Mussad confirmed Saad’s death and said six of his guards were also killed.

Daesh also posted what it said were photos of the booby-trapped vehicle as a white van carrying Saad drove past, then two other photos of a huge ball of fire which it said were taken as the bomb exploded.

The group referred to Saad as a “tyrant” and warned the “heads of the infidels” in Yemen that it would carry out “operations to chop off their rotten heads.”

Saad was only recently appointed governor, and was known to be close to President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi who returned to Aden last month after several months in exile in Riyadh.

Aden’s Tawahi district has become a known hideout for extremists, including Al-Qaeda militants.

Daesh has claimed a string of attacks in Yemen, including the bombing of Hadi’s government headquarters in October and multiple suicide attacks on mosques in Sanaa attended by Shiite worshippers that killed 142 people.

It also claimed the killing of 50 soldiers in a November ambush in southeastern Hadramawt province.

Its statement Sunday threatened more attacks.

The United Arab Emirates, whose forces are playing a pivotal role in supporting Hadi and are present in Aden, condemned Saad’s killing.

“Such crimes will not weaken our common determination to bring back security and stability to the Yemen,” the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said.

Saad’s killing represents another blow for Hadi, who has struggled to secure the city since his forces and allies launched a widespread operation in July to retake five southern provinces – including Aden – from the Houthi rebels.

The counterattack has stalled around Taiz, a strategic southwestern city under siege by the rebels and their allies.

The bombing came a day after the U.N. envoy to Yemen held talks with Hadi in Aden aimed at kickstarting peace talks.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed met Hadi to seek his agreement to convene negotiations with the rebels in Geneva next week on Dec. 15, an official close to the president said.

However, the mission was “difficult,” said the source, accusing the rebels of dragging their feet on implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216 which calls for them to withdraw from occupied territory.

Foreign Minister Abdel Malak al-Mekhlafi said that “the putschists are refusing to lay down their arms or to allow the government to carry out its duties” from Sanaa.

“They have not announced their list of negotiators” for the talks “and are trying to escalate the situation on the ground by bombing residential districts of Taiz.”

In a protest sent to the U.N., the minister in charge of human rights, Ezzedine al-Isbahi, condemned the “massacres and atrocities” allegedly committed in Taiz by the rebels that he said had killed 33 civilians last week, including four children.

In Aden Saturday, masked gunmen shot dead the presiding judge of a terrorism court, Mohsen Mohamed Alwan, and four of his bodyguards, a security source said.

Meanwhile, police Col. Al-Khadher Ali Ahmed, a military intelligence official, was gunned down in a separate attack.

And Sunday, police Colonel Antar al-Bakhshi was shot dead by unknown assailants in the Inmaa district, west of Aden, a security official said.