Sana’a: Suicide bombers targeting army recruits killed at least 45 and injured scores in the restive southern Yemeni city of Aden in two separate assaults, highlighting the obstacles to peace talks currently under way in Kuwait.
The first attacker targeted a group of prospective recruits gathered outside the home of a military commander, Brig-Gen Abdullah Al Subaihi, killing at least 25, according to eyewitnesses and Yemeni officials.
“There were a group of applicants standing outside the gate of Al Subaihi’s house carrying folders and filling out application forms when a terrorist stormed into the crowd blowing himself up and killing and injuring dozens,” said Nabil Hassan Saleh, a 30-year-old local journalist who came to the scene minutes after the explosion took place.
The second attack unfolded 10 minutes later outside an army base that also served as a recruitment centre, killing at least 20, said eyewitnesses and officials.
The base is a kilometre away from the commander’s house. Witnesses said a bomb was planted in front of the gate, but other reports suggested a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car.
“We heard the second explosion only minutes after the first explosion happened,” said Bassam Al Qadi, 28, a human rights activist. “There were lots of bodies lying on the ground in both locations.”
Ambulances, he added, ferried the injured to local hospitals. Many were in critical conditions, said hospital officials. Al Khadr Laswar of the Health Ministry said the number killed in both blasts were 33 so far, with 54 injured.
Other reports placed the death toll as high as 45. “We are still counting and expect the number of killed to go up,” said Laswar.
In a statement carried on social media, a local organisation pledging allegiance to the radical Daesh group claimed responsibility for both attacks.
For nearly two years, the Arabian Penisula nation has been torn apart by a civil war that pits an American and Saudi-backed government against Al Houthi rebels aligned with the forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The rebels and Saleh are in control of the capital, Sana’a, as well as large swaths of the north.
The government largely controls Aden, but other parts of the south are under the domination of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terror network’s Yemen branch.
Yesterday’s blasts underscore the tenuous situation in the south, particularly in Aden, a strategic port on the Arabian Sea and a key global oil shipping lane. Only a few months ago, the government backed by air strikes from a Saudi-led coalition seized the city back from the Al Houthi rebels.
Since then, Aden has been devastated by a series of suicide bombings and assassinations, largely targeting government security forces.
Yesterday’s attacks were the third in three weeks. Twenty days ago, a car bomb targeted the house of the head of security in Aden, injuring one person. Another car bomb exploded ten days ago killing four and injuring at least eight people in the Al Mansurah enclave of Aden.
