SANAA, Yemen — A suicide car bombing claimed by ISIS in Yemen's southern city of Aden on Monday killed at least 54 pro-government recruits, officials said.
The men were at a staging area near two schools and a mosque when a pickup truck suddenly accelerated through the building's gate as a food delivery arrived, exploding amid the crowd, witnesses said.
"Bodies and body parts are scattered all over the place," said Mohammed Osman, a neighbor who rushed to the scene. "It was a massacre," he said.
The death toll steadily rose through the day. By mid-afternoon, the director of Aden's Health Ministry, Khidra Lasour, said 54 had died from the explosion. Almost 70 people were wounded, including 30 seriously, and were being treated in area hospitals.
Yemen is embroiled in a civil war pitting the internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite Houthi rebels, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president. The fighting has allowed al-Qaeda and an IS affiliate to expand their reach, particularly in the south.
The recruits were signing up to join a new unit the Saudis hope will ultimately be made up of 5,000 fighters. After some training, the new force will deploy to the Saudi cities of Najran and Jizan, near the border with Yemen, the officials said. The Houthis control most of northern Yemen, including the border regions and the capital, Sanaa.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders reported on social media that their hospital in Aden had received 45 dead.
The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said the attack was carried out "by a fighter from the Islamic State who targeted a recruitment center."
Ahmed al-Fatih, who had been working at the center, said security at the site was lax.
Related: Airstrikes Hit Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Yemen
"There was no consideration of security," he said. "So it was easy for al-Qaeda or Daesh to pull off such an act," he added, using an Arabic acronym to refer to ISIS.
The U.N. and rights groups estimate at least 9,000 people have been killed since fighting escalated in March 2015 with the start of Saudi-led airstrikes targeting the Houthis and their allies. Some 3 million people have been displaced inside the country, the Arab world's poorest.
U.N.-mediated peace talks in Kuwait were suspended earlier this month with no signs of progress.
