String of attacks: IS bombs kill 47 police recruits in Yemeni port

Militants also kill seven at Baghdad gas plant

ADEN/BAGHDAD: A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group and a second blast killed 47 people on Sunday in the Yemeni port of Mukalla where a year of al Qaeda rule ended last month. Separately, militants from the group also broke into a gas plant in Baghdad, killing at least seven people.

The Mukalla attack was the second in days claimed by the IS in the city of 200,000 people that was recaptured by government forces from the rival fighters of al Qaeda with US backing.

The suicide bomber killed at least 41 police recruits on the southwestern outskirts of the city, the capital of Hadramawt province, medics said after earlier giving a toll of 31 dead.

The bomber detonated an explosives belt after joining a line of men at a police recruiting centre, a provincial official said. More than 50 people were also wounded in the attack in Fuwah district, a medical source said.



Hadramawt’s security chief, General Mubarak al-Oubthani, was at the recruitment centre at the time of the attack but was not hurt. However, he was the target of a second bombing afterwards as he was preparing to head into central Mukalla, a security official said.

The bomb exploded as Oubthani walked out of his office, killing six of his guards but leaving him with only minor injuries, the official said. An IS statement posted online claimed the suicide attack, a second rare operation by the group in an area known to be a stronghold of its al Qaeda rivals. On Thursday, 15 soldiers were killed attacks outside Mukalla.

Meanwhile, suicide attackers broke into a gas plant north of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least seven people and setting fire to gas tanks, officials said. The IS group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Taji plant, which lies about 20 kilometres north of the capital.

Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said eight attackers broke into the gas plant at dawn and blew up a car bomb at one of its entrances. Some of the attackers detonated suicide belts while others were killed by bullets, according to Maan.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2016.