More than 60 people were killed and several injured as a huge explosion triggered by suicide bombers ripped through a key military site and police center in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa on Friday, media reports said quoting security officials.
"At least 65 Army and security soldiers died and 38 others were wounded in three simultaneous car bombing attacks that targeted the police station headquarters and Army-held sites in Azzan area in Shabwa," an unidentified security official was quoted as saying.
The deadliest of Friday's attacks took place when an al-Qaeda suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the Army held-site in Azzan near an oil pipeline. The victims included high-ranking Army officers. Security forces, backed by heavy armored vehicles, were deployed in large numbers around the scene immediately after the attack.
The death toll could rise as condition of some of the injured was stated to be critical. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for the bombing attacks. An AQAP spokesman said that their attacks took place a few minutes after a U.S. drone struck a car carrying militants in Eyen Ma'Bad area in Shabwa and killed all on board.
Soldiers killed in Friday's attack were on security duty to secure a nearby oil installation in the southern edge of the province, the reports said.
Yemen-based AQAP is considered to be the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and its neighbor oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
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