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ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that struck an army recruiting center in Yemen's southern port city of Aden on Monday, which killed at least 65 and injured more than 80 others.
The claim came in a short statement posted on Twitter by the group's semi-official Amaq news agency.
The agency, affiliated with the IS, claimed that the attack conducted by a jihadist fighter killed about 60 new recruits.
Medical sources in Aden told Xinhua the death toll has risen to about 65 and that more than 80 others were injured in the attack.
Earlier in the day, the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres said on Twitter that its hospital in Aden received 45 dead and at least 60 wounded from suicide blast.
Aden-based security sources said that a suicide bomber slammed his explosives-laden car into a gathering of army recruits near a school in Aden's Mansourah neighborhood.
The source said that the explosion took place at the school's courtyard where hundreds of army recruits gathered.
The targeted army recruits joining a pro-government force that will be moved toward the Saudi border, the source said on condition of anonymity.
On Sunday, high-ranking pro-government officials confirmed to Xinhua that they are planning to recruit and train more than 5,000 young fighters from the government-controlled southern provinces to join the fighting with the Saudi Border Guard Forces against Houthi rebels.
Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active insurgencies in the Middle East.
Militant extremists took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in southern Yemen.
Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
More than 6,400 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.
Related:
Death toll rises to 65 in Yemen's suicide bombing
ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of a suicide bombing that targeted an army recruiting compound in Aden on Monday morning rose to 65 killed and 55 injured, according to Yemeni officials.
A source at Aden's Police Command confirmed that dozens of injured army recruits were in critical condition. Full story
