Bombers struck as soldiers broke their fast during holy month of Ramadan

    

Four bomb attacks have killed 43 people at security checkpoints in a southern Yemeni city, in an atrocity claimed by Isis.

The militants struck at sunset as Yemeni soldiers broke their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

At least 38 of those killed in the attack in the south-eastern coastal city of Mukalla were soldiers.

According to news agency Mukalla Now, another 24 people including children were injured in the blasts.

As a result of the attacks, the city’s Ibn Sina Hospital was forced to appeal for urgent blood donations.

A local journalist told Al Jazeera anonymously that the attackers posed as distributors for Iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fast.

The same source said one of the attackers blew himself up at security checkpoint in the western part of the city while the other three attacks took place in downtown Mukalla.

A security official told AFP the killed soldiers were from Hadhrami Elite units, a local force recently formed which helped take back the city from Al Qaeda in April.

As a result of the Yemeni Civil War between the Houthi insurgents in Northern Yemen and the Saudi Arabia-backed government – Isis and Al Qaeda have increased operations in the country including bomb attacks on Mukalla and the southern port of Aden.