Multiple attacks on Yemen's Mukalla leave dozens dead

Dozens have been killed in attacks on Yemen's coastal city of Mukalla on Monday evening, just months after it had been freed of al-Qaeda militants by coalition forces.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

27 June, 2016

Numerous attacks have rocked southern Yemen where al-Qaeda and Islamic State are based [AFP]

At least 35 people were killed when suicide bombings rocked the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla on Monday, just months after Arab coalition forces claimed to recapture the port city from al-Qaeda.

Three simultaneous bombings hit security checkpoints in the coastal city at sunset, just as troops fasting during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan were breaking their fast, a security official said.

In the first attack, a suicide bomber on a motorbike asked soldiers if he could eat with them before blowing himself up, the official said.

Two other bombers approached soldiers on foot elsewhere in the city before detonating their explosive vests.

Shortly afterwards, two suicide bombers launched a fourth attack and blew themselves up at the entrance of an army camp, the official said.

In April, loyalists troops backed by Emirati and Saudi special forces drove al-Qaeda out of Mukalla and the port city of Shihr further east, ending a year of jihadist rule.

But since then there has been a spate of attacks on security forces, many of them suicide bombings, claimed by al-Qaeda or its jihadist rival the Islamic State group, which claimed Monday's attacks.

Despite its loss of Mukalla and the Indian Ocean coast, al-Qaeda retains a strong presence in the province and still controls several towns in the interior valley of Wadi Hadramawt.

Washington regards al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch as its most dangerous and has stepped up a longstanding drone war against it in recent weeks.