A suicide bomber killed at least 54 people when he drove a car 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.
The director general of Yemen’s health ministry in Aden, al-Khader Laswar, told Reuters that at least 67 other people were wounded in the attack in the city’s Mansoura district. The militant IS group said in a statement carried by its Amaq news agency one of its suicide bombers carried out the bombing. “Around 60 dead in a martyrdom operation by a fighter from Islamic State targeting a recruitment center in Aden city,” the statement said, without giving further details.
A security source said the attack targeted a school compound where conscripts of the Popular Committees, forces allied to the ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, were gathered for breakfast.
Witnesses said the suicide bomber entered the compound behind a truck that had brought breakfast for the conscripts, who had queued for the meal.
Ambulance sirens wailed throughout the morning as they ferried casualties to a hospital run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which was overwhelmed by the number of casualties. A MSF spokesperson said the hospital received at least 45 bodies and more than 60 wounded people.
