Yemenis inspect the site of a suicide vehicle bombing claimed by the Islamic State group on August 29, 2016 at an army recruitment centre in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.
Advertisement
The war in the country is carried out by the Houthi rebels, the followers of the former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh and the supporters of former President Abdel Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Saudi Arabia launched the war to put Hadi, who is a Saudi ally, back in power. The men were at a staging area near two schools and a mosque where they were registering to join the expedition.
Human rights groups have slammed the United States for directly backing the war, arguing the Obama administration must not only pressure Riyadh to clean up its act in Yemen, but also take responsibility for its role own role in the bloody conflict.
A massive suicide auto bombing in the southern Yemeni city of Aden has killed at least 71 people, with the death toll continuing to rise, marking the single deadliest attack in the country, Saudi airstrikes notwithstanding, in over a year.
Witnesses said the bomber entered a gated training compound behind a truck that was carrying breakfast to the recruits.
“Bodies and body parts are scattered all over the place”, said Mohammed Osman, a neighbor who rushed to the scene. “It was a massacre”. Nearly 70 people were wounded, including 30 seriously, and were being treated in area hospitals.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator said in a press conference in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday that the toll was based on official records provided by medical facilities in Yemen.
SABA reports Wednesday that overnight airstrikes targeted the district of al-Sahan in Saada, a stronghold for Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as the Houthis. “And an al-Qaida branch and a burgeoning ISIS affiliate have benefited from the violence”.
The slain pro-government troops were reportedly preparing to leave for Saudi Arabia to fight in the northern border area of Yemen.
Hundreds have already arrived in the border province of Jawf and the adjacent province of Marib.
Advertisement
Earlier in the day, the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres said on Twitter that its hospital in Aden received 45 dead and at least 60 wounded from suicide blast.
