Suicide bombing kills 25 security recruits in Yemen

A suicide bomber blew himself up in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla on Sunday in an attack claimed by Daesh, killing at least 25 recruits and wounding 25 others as they lined up at a police headquarters, a security source said.

It was the second deadly blast to hit the city, which was a hub for al Qaeda before the group was pushed out in a military offensive last month.

In a message on its online news agency Amaq, Daesh said the attacker was a "martrydom-seeker" who had detonated his explosive belt.

Al Qaeda militants took advantage of more than a year of war in Yemen to carve out a mini-state stretching across much of the southern coast but an attack by government troops backed by the United Arab Emirates reversed many of their gains.

Their militant rivals in Yemen's branch of Daesh rose last year and have launched a series of suicide attacks on all parties to Yemen's tangled conflict.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab countries intervened in Yemen's civil war in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government, which had been swept into exile by Yemen's Houthi Shia militias, an ally of Iran.

The mostly Gulf Arab military coalition fear the Houthis are acting as proxies for Tehran and their fight has split Yemen's army and enabled militant groups to carry out dozens of bombing and shootings.