ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Two separate attacks targeted the newly-recruited Yemeni military forces in the southern port city of Aden on Thursday, leaving around 49 killed, including high-ranking army commanders.
The Aden-based Interior Ministry said that 13 security soldiers died in a suicide car bombing attack that targeted a police station in Sheikh Othman neighborhood of Aden province.
Elsewhere in Aden's western part, nearly 36 of the newly-recruited army soldiers were killed in a ballistic missile attack launched by the Houthi rebels, that struck their military base in the Buraiga district, the ministry said in a statement.
The deadly attacks left around 48 other newly-recruited Yemeni soldiers injured, some in a critical condition, according to the statement.
In the first attack, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden vehicle towards the main gate of Sheikh Othman police station, causing a huge explosion that rocked the city, according to local sources.
The attack occurred while dozens of newly-recruited security members were gathering before leaving to work at various checkpoints in the city.
The suicide attack partially destroyed the police station building and some nearby residential buildings, according to the sources.
Several civilians were injured as a result of the huge suicide car bombing and transferred to the city's hospitals for treatment.
In Aden's Buraiga district, a ballistic missile hit a pro-government military base while hundreds of soldiers were preparing for a parade on the occasion of graduation.
High-ranking military commanders and government officials were present inside the military base during the ballistic missile attack that caused heavy casualties among the soldiers.
Munir Abu Yamamah, leader of the 1st Armored Brigade, along with other army officers backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), were killed in the missile attack, according to local military sources.
"An explosion rocked the ground and caused a state of panic and confusion among hundreds of soldiers who were preparing themselves to start a military parade inside the base," said a soldier named as Ali Faqeeh.
"Many soldiers died immediately on the parade square that was filled with the dead bodies and blood after the deadly attack," said Faqeeh.
A Xinhua reporter near the scene confirmed that several ambulances were seen transferring the dead and injured soldiers into different hospitals in Aden.
The targeted military base was preparing to dispatch new batches of well-trained army soldiers to join the pro-government forces fighting the Houthis in the southern province of Dhalea, local government sources said.
The Houthi-affiliated Masirah television network claimed responsibility for launching a ballistic missile and drone attack against the pro-government military base in Aden's district of Buraiga.
"The attack was aimed at a military parade of the invaders and the mercenaries, and it precisely targeted the base," it said in a statement released minutes after the attack.
Yemen's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik said in a statement posted on Twitter that "the simultaneous attacks that targeted Aden's security and stability revealed the obvious coordination and integration between the terrorist groups and the Houthis under a clear Iranian administration."
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack that struck the police station in Aden, but the security sources blamed it on extremist groups.
Yemeni government officials, including high-ranking security commanders and intelligence officers, have been the prime targets for the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch during the past months.
In January, some military officers loyal to the internationally-backed Yemeni government were killed and many soldiers were injured in a strike launched by a Houthi drone against a military parade in Lahj in southern Yemen.
Considered Yemen's temporary capital, Aden is where the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has based itself since 2015.
The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa.
