Suicide bomb kills 35 Yemen soldiers

ADEN: A suicide bomber killed 35 soldiers and wounded around 50 more yesterday at a military camp in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, where jihadists are active, a military source said. The attacker detonated his explosives belt as hundreds of troops gathered to receive their monthly pay at the barracks in Al-Sawlaban near the city’s international airport, the source said.

Security sources said earlier that a bomb planted by unknown individuals had been behind the deadly explosion. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Yemeni authorities have for months pressed a campaign against jihadists who remain active in the south and east of the war-torn country. The Islamic State group and its jihadist rival AlQaeda have taken advantage of a conflict between the government and the Houthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, to bolster their presence across much of the south.

IS and Al-Qaeda have carried out a spate of attacks in Aden, headquarters of Yemen’s internationally recognized government since allied fighters retook the port city from the rebels last year. An IS militant rammed his explosives-laden car into an army recruiting centre in Aden in August, killing 71 people in the deadliest jihadist attack on the city in over a year. On Monday, Yemeni authorities arrested eight suspected IS jihadists implicated in a spate of attacks targeting security personnel in the city this year. A Saudi-led coalition has since March 2015 supported loyalist forces fighting the rebels.