20 Yemeni soldiers killed in IS-claimed attacks in SE province

At least 20 pro-government soldiers were killed in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout in a series of attacks that targeted military locations on Monday, a security official told Xinhua.

Attackers blew themselves up and targeted military checkpoints near the Chinese bridge in Mukalla city, Hadramout's provincial capital, leaving 15 soldiers killed, according to an anonymous security source.

Another suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden motorbike and targeted an intelligence building in Mukalla, killing about five soldiers, the source said.

The attacks targeted at least three military checkpoints and an intelligence compound simultaneously in the coastal city of Mukalla.

The simultaneous explosions took place while the soldiers were gathering for breaking the fast, witnesses said, adding that scores of soldiers were injured and sent to nearby medical centers.

Hospitals call for urgent blood donations due to the large number of casualties, said a medical source.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for the four attacks on Yemeni military posts just minutes following the incidents.

The claim came in a short statement posted via Twitter by the group's Amaq news agency, the same channel that claimed the Paris, Brussels and Orlando attacks.

The Yemeni government forces launched anti-terror offensives and drove out scores of gunmen linked to the al-Qaida and the Yemen-based affiliate of IS from key neighborhoods and government compounds in Lahj and Abyan provinces in the last two months.

The pro-government forces backed by helicopters of United Arab Emirates (UAE) continued to make significant gains and recaptured key areas from the al-Qaida militants in the country's southern provinces and in southeastern province of Hadramout during the past weeks.

However, Yemen's temporary capital of Aden and other provinces controlled by the internationally recognized government are still witnessing chaos and lawlessness that resulted in the assassinations of several high-ranking security and military officials.

The complicated security situation in Aden and neighboring southern provinces of Lahj and Abyan is one of the biggest challenges for the Saudi-led Arab coalition forces operating in Aden.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition has dispatched thousands of soldiers from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Sudan and Bahrain into five anti-Houthi southern provinces to support and train local Yemeni security forces there.

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

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