At least 10 Yemeni soldiers have been killed and dozens wounded in a double car bomb attack at a military base in the southern city of Aden.

The attackers detonated a car bomb near the entrance of the army base in the Khormaksar district adjoining Aden international airport, military sources said on Wednesday.

The first explosion allowed the second vehicle to drive inside where it also blew up.

The explosions were followed by gun battles between troops and about two dozen attackers, witnesses said. The base was sealed off by government forces sent as reinforcements.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

READ MORE: Yemen - Pulling the Strings

Yemen has been at war since September 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels and their allies drove the government out of the capital Sanaa and much of the country's north.

The Houthis controlled Aden, the main city in southern Yemen, for months before government forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition pushed them back in July.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has exploited the chaos to expand areas under its control and recruit more followers.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has also launched several mass-casualty attacks on security forces.

Late last month, fighters pledging allegiance to ISIL claimed responsibility for a wave of suicide bomb attacks that killed 38 government troops in the southern port city of Mukalla.