25 soldiers killed as two explosions rock Yemen's Aden

5 Dariya News

Aden (Yemen) 23-May-2016

At least 25 soldiers were killed and 23 injured when a suicide bombing rocked an army base in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Monday, a security official said.

The suicide attack targeted the newly recruited soldiers inside the 39th Armoured Brigade in KhorMaksar district, Xinhua reported.The official spokesman for Aden's local government said: "A suicide bomber sneaked into the army brigade and detonated his explosive belt among dozens of soldiers."At the same time, a car bomb exploded as recruits lined up for meeting a military committee in order to enlist for military service.It was not yet clear how many people were killed or injured in the car bomb explosion.The toll could rise as ambulances and police vehicles were evacuating the victims to different hospitals, the source said.After the two separate bombings, security authorities in Aden received intelligence information about a car filled with explosives in Aden prepared to launch a fresh attack in the city.No group has claimed responsibility for the latest suicide bombings, although the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda offshoot is believed to be behind most of such attacks, which usually targets security and government officials.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional Al-Qaeda insurgencies in the Middle East.The Al-Qaeda offshoot, also known as Ansar Al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence in Yemen's southern regions.The fragile security situation in the country has deteriorated since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shia Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.