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Today's Paper | November 23, 2024

Updated 23 May, 2016 01:21pm

Yemen suicide attacks kill at least 45 army recruits

SANAA: Yemeni security officials say that a pair of suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in the southern city of Aden. The officials said Monday that the two bombers targeted young men seeking to join the army.

One suicide car bomber targeted a line outside an army recruitment centre, killing at least 20.

A second bomber on foot detonated his explosive vest among a group of recruits waiting outside the home of an army commander, killing at least 25.

The Yemeni officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

Al Qaeda and its rival the militant Islamic State group, have claimed responsibility for a spate of attacks on government forces who drove Huthi Shia rebels out of the city in July with support from a Saudi-led coalition.

The two militant groups exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict to expand their presence in the south and southeast.

But over the past two months, government and coalition forces have hit back, driving the militants out of Aden, as well as the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla, which they had controlled for a year.

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