ADEN // Suicide bombings at two army checkpoints in Yemen’s south-eastern city of Mukalla killed six soldiers and injured 18 others on Monday.
“A car bomb targeted Al Ghabr checkpoint, and a bus with explosives targeted Broom checkpoint,” the command of the second military region, which includes Hadramout province, said. It said both bombings took place at 6.10am.
The checkpoints were in the western district of Mukalla, Hadramout’s provincial capital.
The army said the suicide bombers wanted to pass through the checkpoints into city but were stopped by soldiers.
The military has warned both soldiers and residents to be cautious at all times and called on civilians to inform security forces about any suspicious activities.
The suicide bombers probably came from outside Mukalla as the Broom checkpoint is at the western entrance to the city, said Mohammed Al Sharafi, a journalist based in Mukalla.
He said the casualties at the Broom checkpoint could have been higher.
"The bombing at Broom checkpoint happened as a bus packed with students was travelling from Al Mukalla to Aden province," Sharafi told The National.
“But the bus was late by about a minute, so the students were not harmed,” he said.
Al Qaeda seized control of Mukalla and its surrounding towns for a year until pro-government troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition drove out the militants there in April this year.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombings on Monday.
ISIL, Al Qaeda's main rival in Yemen, claimed a series of bombings that hit military camps in Mukalla city last month, killing 48 soldiers and injuring 38 others.
Yemen has been gripped by a devastating conflict that escalated in March 2015 when Saudi-led air strikes began against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who seized northern and central parts of the country including the capital, Sanaa.
The violence has allowed extremist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIL to extend their influence and launch scores of attacks on security forces, with pro-government forces struggling to stem the wave of bombings.
The Pentagon said in May that a “very small number” of US military personnel had been deployed around Mukalla in support of pro-government forces.
Washington considers the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the network’s deadliest franchise and its drone strikes have taken out a number of senior Aqap commanders in Yemen over the past year.
In March, a US air raid on an Al Qaeda training camp in Hajr killed more than 70 extremists, provincial officials said.
The attacks come as Yemen’s government on Saturday resumed talks in Kuwait with the Houthi rebels.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse