Update: Yemen: Suspected Qaida suicide attacks target military base

Suspected al-Qaida militants detonated three suicide car bombs at a military base in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Thursday, killing 16 soldiers, a security official told Xinhua.

The coordinated attacks targetted a key military base in the eastern outskirts of Mukalla, Hadramout's provincial capital, the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

"The suicide attacks targeted a military base controlled by newly recruited Yemeni soldiers and UAE troops in Khalaf area in the eastern parts of Mukalla," an army officer told Xinhua, referring to the United Arab Emirates, which is part of a Saudi-led coalition operating inside Yemen.

At least 16 Yemeni soldiers were killed and several others injured, said the army officer, adding that most of the casualties were from bomb disposal unit.

The toll could rise as ambulances, police vehicles were evacuating the victims to nearby military hospitals and medical centers, the source added.

Unconfirmed reports by local media outlets said some UAE soldiers were among the dead in the three coordinated suicide bombings in Hadramout.

Over the past few weeks, Yemeni government forces and the Saudi-led coalition have been conducting well-planned and unprecedented attacks on key bastions of the al-Qaida terrorist group in the country's southern and eastern regions.

Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers newly trained by the Saudi-led coalition and supported by UAE special troops managed last month to recapture the coastal city of Mukalla, Hadramout's provincial capital, after intense fighting and intensified air raids on al-Qaida positions.

For the latest three suicide bombings, no group has yet claimed responsibility, although the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot is believed to be behind most such attacks in the past, which usually targeted security and government officials.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, also known as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence in Yemen's southern regions.

The fragile security situation in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians. Endit