Islamic State bombs target Yemeni army recruits, killing at least 40

ADEN , Yemen, May 23 (UPI) -- A suicide bombing, for which the Islamic State took responsibility, killed at least 40 Yemeni army recruits in Aden on Monday morning.

The bomb targeted men standing in line to enlist at the home of a senior army commander in Aden's Khormaksar district, an area uniting the Yemeni mainland and a peninsula where much of the port city of about 800,000 lies. Aden is considered the provisional capital of the Saudi-supported government.

There were conflicting reports over whether a car bomb or a man wearing a vest of explosives attacked the recruits.

Another 60 people were injured, medics reported, and a second bomb detonated soon afterward at a nearby army base, causing no injuries. The attack was one of the deadliest on the government since a Saudi-led coalition began a campaign against Houthi rebels who seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in March 2015.

After the bombings, IS said on social media one of its suicide bombers attacked a group of "apostate soldiers." The group, identified as Daesh, ISIS and ISIL, also claimed responsibility for a nearby detonation of an improvised explosive device. Eight days ago IS took responsibility for a suicide bombing at police barracks in the nearby port city of Mukalla, which killed 31 police recruits. The city was recaptured last month after a year under al-Qaida domination.

At least 6,200 people, half of them civilians, have died in Yemen since the Saudi-led campaign against the rebels began. The population, regarded as the Arab world's poorest, face famine, and the majority are in need of humanitarian aid.