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Two explosions rock Yemen's Aden, 25 soldiers killed

Xinhua, May 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Twenty-five soldiers were killed and 23 others injured when a suicide bombing hit an army base in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Monday morning, a security official told Xinhua.

The suicide attack targeted the newly recruited soldiers inside the 39th Armored Brigade in Aden's district of KhorMaksar, the local official said on condition of anonymity.

The official spokesman for Aden's local government told Xinhua that "a suicide bomber sneaked into the army brigade and detonated his explosive belt among dozens of soldiers."

At the same time, a car bomb exploded as recruits lined up for meeting a military committee in KhorMaksar district in order to enlist for military service. It is not yet clear how many people killed and injured in the car bomb explosion.

The toll could rise as ambulances and police vehicles were evacuating the victims to different public hospitals in the city, the source added.

After the two separate bombings, security authorities in Aden received intelligence information about a car filled with explosives in Aden prepared to launch a fresh attack in the city.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the latest suicide bombings, 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