A suicide bomber killed at least 54 people when he drove a vehicle bomb into a militia compound in Aden on Monday, the health ministry said, in one of the deadliest attacks claimed by Islamic State in the southern Yemeni port city.
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The medical organization said on Twitter that at least 45 people had been killed, and that 60 others were wounded, but Al-Khadher Laswar, a Health Ministry official in Aden, said the death toll was 54 people, with 67 wounded.
The Islamic State claimed yesterday’s bombing on its propaganda outlet, Amaq News Agency, saying the blast had killed about 60 people.
Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, has been wracked by a multi-sided battle pitting government forces against Shiite Houthi rebels in the north.
Extremist Islamist groups, including both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, have taken advantage of the fighting to gain territory and launch attacks on both sides.
Meanwhile, in Kerbala, Iraq, five ISIS militants attacked a wedding celebration late Sunday night, firing machine guns and throwing hand grenades, with one of the assailants reportedly blowing himself up.
The ISIS auto bomber attacked a crowded army recruitment center in the southern city, which is the temporary capital city of the pro-Saudi half of Yemen.
The pro-government troops were preparing to depart to fight in northern Yemen on the border with Saudi Arabia.
The armed conflict began in March of 2015 when Saudi Arabia gathered a coalition to combat the Houthis after they took over the capital city of Sana’a.
But on Jul 20, four policemen were killed in a bombing attack in Aden that was claimed by IS.
Sixteen people, mostly women and children, also lost their lives and a number of others were wounded when Saudi warplanes pounded houses in the Sahan district of Yemen’s northwestern mountainous province of Sa’ada.
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Yemeni men walk amid the ruins of a building in Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital Sanaa on August 29, 2016, after it was reportedly hit by a Saudi-led coalition air strike.
