ADEN // Suicide bombings at two army checkpoints in Yemen’s south-eastern city of Mukalla killed six soldiers and injured 18 others on Monday.
“A car bomb targeted Al Ghabr checkpoint, and a bus with explosives targeted Broom checkpoint,” the command of the second military region, which includes Hadramout province, said. It said both bombings took place at 6.10am.
The checkpoints were in the western district of Mukalla, Hadramout’s provincial capital.
The army said the suicide bombers wanted to pass through the checkpoints into city but were stopped by soldiers.
The military has warned both soldiers and residents to be cautious at all times and called on civilians to inform security forces about any suspicious activities.
The suicide bombers probably came from outside Mukalla as the Broom checkpoint is at the western entrance to the city, said Mohammed Al Sharafi, a journalist based in Mukalla.
He said the casualties at the Broom checkpoint could have been higher.
"The bombing at Broom checkpoint happened as a bus packed with students was travelling from Al Mukalla to Aden province," Sharafi told The National.
“But the bus was late by about a minute, so the students were not harmed,” he said.
Al Qaeda seized control of Mukalla and its surrounding towns for a year until pro-government troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition drove out the militants there in April this year.
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombings on Monday.
ISIL, Al Qaeda's main rival in Yemen, claimed a series of bombings that hit military camps in Mukalla city last month, killing 48 soldiers and injuring 38 others.
Yemen has been gripped by a devastating conflict that escalated in March 2015 when Saudi-led air strikes began against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who seized northern and central parts of the country including the capital, Sanaa.
The violence has allowed extremist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIL to extend their influence and launch scores of attacks on security forces, with pro-government forces struggling to stem the wave of bombings.
The Pentagon said in May that a “very small number” of US military personnel had been deployed around Mukalla in support of pro-government forces.
Washington considers the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the network’s deadliest franchise and its drone strikes have taken out a number of senior Aqap commanders in Yemen over the past year.
In March, a US air raid on an Al Qaeda training camp in Hajr killed more than 70 extremists, provincial officials said.
The attacks come as Yemen’s government on Saturday resumed talks in Kuwait with the Houthi rebels.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse
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Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
ESSENTIALS
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Trips on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian cost from US$16,995 (Dh62,414) per person, based on two sharing.
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Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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