11 people were killed and 37 others injured in two suicide attacks that took place yesterday morning in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramaut province. Two car bombs went off at two different checkpoints near the western entrance to the city.

A Department of Health official in Mukalla Riad Al-Jariri said 4 civilians were killed, including a woman, and that the rest were soldiers, according to Agence France-Presse.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the bombings and confirmed this via their Twitter accounts. The first explosion took place in Al-Ghaber area, and the second took place in Burum, southwest of Mukalla.

A military source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the explosions resulted in the deaths of five army soldiers including the commander of the Burum checkpoint Colonel Salih Saif. 37 others were injured, including seven citizens who were on board a minibus heading to the province Aden when the explosion took place. All those injured were taken to Ibn Sina General Hospital in Mukalla for treatment. The hospital is 20 kilometres away from the sites of the bombings.

The source added that it is thought that the two cars laden with explosives came from the Shabwa province, a large part of which is controlled by Al-Qaeda. The perpetrators intended to target crowds of civilians in Mukalla, but they were forced to detonate the bombs at the check points when they failed to cross the security barrier of Mukalla.