ADEN — Ten suspected Islamist militants and six soldiers died during a suicide bombing and assault on the main military headquarters in Aden on Wednesday, April 2, Yemen’s Defense Ministry said.

The attack bore the hallmarks of previous assaults on military installations by al-Qaeda, including one on the Defense Ministry compound in Sanaa in December and an earlier assault on the headquarters of the Second Division in Hadramout province.

State news agency Saba quoted a security source as saying al-Qaeda militants tried to storm the army’s Fourth Division headquarters in Aden’s al-Tawahi district after detonating a car laden with explosives outside the main gate.

The Fourth Division controls the military in southern Yemen.

Witnesses and the separatist Aden al-Ghad news website also said a 10-year-old boy was killed and four civilians were wounded by shrapnel from a shell that missed its target during subsequent clashes between the army and the militants, who apparently were still holding out in the area.

Tawahi houses some of the country’s main state facilities in Aden, including the presidential palace, the local secret service offices and the local radio and television studios.