At least 43 soldiers dead in Yemen suicide blast

ADEN: A suicide bomber killed at least 43 Yemeni soldiers in Aden yesterday, the latest in a string of deadly bomb attacks against recruits in the war-torn country’s second city.

Military officials and medics said many others were wounded in the attack that targeted a crowd of soldiers gathered to collect their salaries near a base in northeastern Aden.

The attacker immersed himself among the soldiers crowding outside the house of the head of special security forces in Aden, Colonel Nasser Sarea, in Al-Arish district, near Al-Sawlaban base.

Sarea said the bomber “took advantage of the gathering and detonated his explosives among them, killing 43 soldiers and wounding several others”.

Images from the blast scene showed blood stains and scattered shoes across the sandy ground.

The attack comes eight days after a similar bombing at Al-Sawlaban claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed 48 soldiers and wounded 29 others.

Yemeni authorities have for months pressed a campaign against jihadists who remain active in the south and east of the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

IS and its jihadist rival alQaeda have taken advantage of a conflict between the government and Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, to bolster their presence across much of the south.

The two extremist groups have carried out a spate of attacks in Aden, Yemen’s second city and headquarters of the internationally recognised government whose forces retook the port city from the Huthis last year.

But al- Qaeda has distanced itself from the December 10 attack, claiming that it tends to avoids “the shedding of any Muslim blood” while focusing on fighting the “Americans and their allies.”

No group claimed immediate responsibility for Sunday’s blast.

Al- Qaeda has long been the dominant jihadist force in Yemen, located next to oil-flush Saudi Arabia and key shipping lanes, but experts say IS is seeking to supplant its extremist rival.

Washington regards al- Qaeda’s Yemen-based branch as its most dangerous and has kept up a longrunning drone war against its commanders. — AFP