APPHOTO CAITH104: Fighters loyal to the government gather at the site of a suicide auto bombing in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.
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The United Nations says the death toll has increased to almost 10,000 since Saudi Arabia began a military intervention in Yemen 18 months ago.
At least 54 people were killed in a suicide auto bombing at a military facility in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Monday, the health ministry said, according to Reuters.
Although the complex was locked as recruits registered inside, the attacker drove in when the gate was opened for a delivery vehicle, officials say.
A Yemeni man inspects the debris of a building in Yemen’s capital of Sana’a on August 29, 2016, after it was hit by a Saudi airstrike.
Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that is backing the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and carrying out airstrikes against the Shiite rebels, which it claims are backed by Iran. The massive death toll represents one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Yemen since ISIS established a foothold in the war-torn country.
The director general of Yemen’s health ministry in Aden, al-Khader Laswar, told Reuters that at least 67 other people were wounded in the attack in the city’s Mansoura district.
Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers have been trained over the past two months as the government intensifies its onslaught to recapture southern provinces from jihadists.
The latest hostilities come amid ongoing failed attempts to launch peace talks in Yemen.
He said the new talks would try to twin a proposal for the Houthis to withdraw from cities they seized since 2014 with setting up an inclusive government.
Troops retook other towns across Abyan but have been met by fierce resistance in key Al-Qaeda stronghold, Al-Mahfid, a town which lies further east, security sources said. The air strikes have been criticized for killing civilians as well as militants.
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Al-Jaafari in a statement reiterated the Iraqi government’s opposition to the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, saying it contributed to bloodshed and instability.
