49 people killed in two terror bombings in Yemen

At least 49 people were on Monday killed in two suicide bombings targeting army recruits and a military brigade in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, a security official said.

One suicide attack targeted newly recruited soldiers inside the 39th Armoured Brigade in KhorMaksar district in which 25 soldiers were killed and 23 injured, Xinhua reported.

The official spokesman for Aden's local government said: "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 order to enlist for military service.

The car bomb explosion left 24 people killed and a large number injured, according to the military sources.

The toll could rise as ambulances and police vehicles were evacuating the victims to different hospitals, the sources said.

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 claimed responsibility for the latest suicide bombings, although the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda offshoot is believed to be behind most of such attacks, which usually target security and government officials.

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

The Al-Qaeda offshoot, also known as Ansar Al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It has 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 the country has deteriorated since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shia Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

Since then more than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes, half of them civilians.

--IANS

py/dg