A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into the Yemeni defence ministry complex today, followed by an armed assault in which 52 people died, including seven foreign medical staff, officials said.
The brazen daylight attack on the sprawling facility followed a spate of hit-and-run strikes on military personnel and officials, as the country struggles to complete a thorny political transition.
The attacks in the capital and in the south have generally been blamed on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the United States regards as the jihadist network's most dangerous branch.
Two doctors from Germany, two from Vietnam and another from Yemen were killed, as well two female nurses from the Philippines and one from India, said the statement carried by Saba news agency.
They all worked at a hospital within the complex that bore the brunt of the attack.
Earlier, a medic at the hospital had said six doctors -- a Venezuelan, two Filipinos and three Yemenis -- were killed.
All the other "martyrs" were civilians and military personnel in the hospital, including a top Yemeni judge and his wife, the committee statement said.
And 167 people were wounded, nine of them seriously.
"A car bomb driven by a suicide bomber forced its way into the western entrance of the ministry complex," a security official told AFP.
"It was followed by another car whose occupants opened fire at the complex of buildings," he said.
The attack cames as Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser headed a military delegation on a visit to the United States.
The ministry said gunmen occupied the hospital after the explosion, but that security forces had regained control of the building.
"The assailants took advantage of some construction work that is taking place to carry out this criminal act," it said, without elaborating.
A security source said that, in another apparently coordinated attack, a gunfight raged outside the complex after the explosion, before government forces regained control and cordoned off the area.
State television aired gory footage of mangled bodies of what it said were suicide bombers, strewn in the hospital yard amid charred vehicles.
The brazen daylight attack on the sprawling facility followed a spate of hit-and-run strikes on military personnel and officials, as the country struggles to complete a thorny political transition.
The attacks in the capital and in the south have generally been blamed on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the United States regards as the jihadist network's most dangerous branch.
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"This terrorist act has killed 52 people," Yemen's supreme security committee said.
Two doctors from Germany, two from Vietnam and another from Yemen were killed, as well two female nurses from the Philippines and one from India, said the statement carried by Saba news agency.
They all worked at a hospital within the complex that bore the brunt of the attack.
Earlier, a medic at the hospital had said six doctors -- a Venezuelan, two Filipinos and three Yemenis -- were killed.
All the other "martyrs" were civilians and military personnel in the hospital, including a top Yemeni judge and his wife, the committee statement said.
And 167 people were wounded, nine of them seriously.
"A car bomb driven by a suicide bomber forced its way into the western entrance of the ministry complex," a security official told AFP.
"It was followed by another car whose occupants opened fire at the complex of buildings," he said.
The attack cames as Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser headed a military delegation on a visit to the United States.
The ministry said gunmen occupied the hospital after the explosion, but that security forces had regained control of the building.
"The assailants took advantage of some construction work that is taking place to carry out this criminal act," it said, without elaborating.
A security source said that, in another apparently coordinated attack, a gunfight raged outside the complex after the explosion, before government forces regained control and cordoned off the area.
State television aired gory footage of mangled bodies of what it said were suicide bombers, strewn in the hospital yard amid charred vehicles.