The Islamic State claimed it was behind the deadly attack according to its Amaq news agency, reported the Reuters news agency. Yemeni officials say at least 65 people have been killed and dozens wounded.
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Attacks in the city are often claimed by jihadists from either Al-Qaeda or IS, which have both taken advantage of the chaos in Yemen to make gains in the south and southeast.
Marwan Abu Murad, 38, a Customs Authority employee in Aden who lives about half a mile from the scene of the bombing, said area residents told him the attack occurred when a military food truck entered the compound of a government school that had been turned into a recruitment base.
Officials said some recruits were buried when a roof collapsed after the blast.
The agency, affiliated with the IS, claimed that the attack conducted by a jihadist fighter killed about 60 new recruits. The coalition said it regretted the aid group’s withdrawal from the country.
In May, a suicide bomber killed at least 40 army recruits and injured 60 others when he rammed a booby-trapped vehicle at recruits lined up to enlist for military service at a compound in Aden.
It was used by the Popular Resistance, a local force that had helped drive Iranian-allied Houthis out of the city a year ago.
The war in Yemen has also impacted security in Saudi Arabia, where shelling from the kingdom’s impoverished neighbour killed three Saudi children and wounded nine other people on Sunday.
The attack came amid a fresh push to end Yemen’s 17-month-old war between Saudi-backed government and rebels that the United Nations says has left 6,600 people dead. The air strikes have been criticized for killing civilians as well as militants.
Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
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A ceasefire went into effect in April, but the lull in fighting was short-lived, and peace talks that started that month reached a dead end by August.
