Yemen is embroiled in a civil war pitting the internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite Houthi rebels, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president.
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At least 54 people have been killed and more wounded after a suicide bomber drove a vehicle bomb into a militia compound in the southern port city of Aden on Monday.
The recruits, which made up the overwhelming majority of the casualties, were signing up to be deployed overseas to Djibouti and Eritrea for military, before eventually being redeployed back to the Saudi border to fight Yemen’s Shi’ite Houthis.
Although the complex was locked as recruits registered inside, the attacker drove in when the gate was opened for a delivery vehicle, officials said.
Witnesses said some recruits were buried when a roof collapsed over them following the blast, which also damaged buildings close to the recruitment center.
In May, suicide bombers in Aden killed at least 45 army recruits lined up to enlist.
A suicide bombing in Yemen has killed at least 54 people in the southern city of Aden, The Associated Press reports, citing Yemen’s health ministry.
Extremist Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, have taken advantage of the fighting to gain territory and launch attacks on both sides. IS claimed Monday’s bombing on its official propaganda outlet, Amaq.
Isil has claimed responsibility for the attack. But on July 20, four policemen were killed in a bombing attack in Aden that was claimed by IS.
Just last week, Doctors Without Borders – the same group treating victims in Aden – pulled out of hospitals in Yemen’s north, citing the threat posed by airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition.
The source said that the explosion took place at the school’s courtyard where hundreds of army recruits gathered.
The fighters are still present in areas surrounding the recaptured towns and control large parts of the neighbouring Shabwa province, the sources say.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March a year ago and have helped government forces push the rebels out of Aden and four other southern provinces since July 2015.
Cross-border attacks from Yemen have intensified since the suspension in early August of UN-brokered peace talks between the rebels and the Saudi-backed government.
Also on Monday, a delegation of Houthis met in Baghdad with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to discuss the war and fruitless peace talks. The air strikes have been criticized for killing civilians as well as militants.
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The United Nations has said that as many as 9,000 people have died in the Yemeni civil war since violence escalated in March 2015, while another 3 million people have been displaced inside the country.
