49 Soldiers Killed As ISIS Suicide Bomber Struck Yemen

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that left up to 49 Yemeni soldiers dead at a military base in Aden, barely a week after a similar attack that also killed dozens of troops in the southern port city....


Military officials and medics told the AFP news agency on Sunday morning that the suicide bomber detonated his explosives as a group of soldiers were gathering to collect their salaries at the al-Solban base in the city’s northeast.

It was gathered that several other soldiers were injured in the attack as thousands of men queued up at the entrance of the base.

The attacker immersed himself among the soldiers at Al-Sawlaba base, in Al-Arish district, a military official said.

In a statement posted via its Amaq news agency, IS said Sunday’s attacker, who it identified as Abu Hashem al-Radfani, detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd of soldiers.

The attack comes eight days after a similar bombing in Aden claimed by the so-called 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 war-torn country.

Al-Qaeda and the ISIL have exploited the war to carry out assassinations and bombings, mostly in lawless southern Yemeni areas nominally controlled by the government.