A Yemeni soldier holds pictures of victims of an al-Qaeda attack on the Defense ministry’s medical complex that left over 50 people dead, during a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the attack in Sanaa.

Saudi-led coalition air strikes hit an Al-Qaeda training camp in the network’s southeastern Yemen stronghold on Tuesday, killing and wounding dozens, government officials in the region said.

“An Arab coalition air force targeted an Al-Qaeda training camp, killing and wounding dozens” in Hajr, west of Hadramawt’s provincial capital Mukalla which has been held by the militants since April.

Tribal sources in the area told AFP that a series of air strikes hit the camp and that wounded militants were taken to a hospital in Mukalla.

Witnesses there reported seeing around nine vehicles carrying casualties from the area.

Dozens of Al-Qaeda militants were meanwhile seen rushing to the hospital to donate blood, according to residents.

The coalition, which launched an air campaign against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen a year ago, began targeting militants for the first time last week in Yemen’s second city Aden.

Al-Qaeda and ISIS have taken advantage of the conflict between the rebels and coalition-backed loyalist forces to reinforce their presence in the south and east of the country.

The Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is classified by the United States as the network’s deadliest franchise and had claimed attacks on the West in the past.

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