SANAA: A suicide attacker drove an explosives-packed car into a post held by Shiite rebels in north Yemen yesterday, killing 13 people, including three children, sources said.
Thirteen people were “killed in a suicide attack using a bomb-laden car that stormed a post held by Huthis in Al-Jawf” province, the tribal chief said. Among those killed were four passersby, a woman and three children, he said.
Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told AFP seven of his men were killed in the attack.
Witnesses confirmed that a car stormed a school in the town of Hazm in Al-Jawf, which the rebels have turned into a base. “The school’s entrance was completely destroyed,” said the tribal chief.
He said that shrapnel flew 500 meters from the site of the explosion “due to its intensity.”
Hasan Bughadra, an activist from the tribes of Al-Jawf, also said that seven rebels were killed as well as five civilians in addition to the attacker whose body was torn to pieces.
“The toll is expected to rise especially among civilians because the school is located right in the town center.” Abdulsalam said that earlier yesterday a bid by a “suicide attacker” to infiltrate a rally held to “condemn the US intervention and US drones in Yemen” was foiled.
The would-be was spotted, search and then killed, the rebel spokesman said, adding that the man had been “wearing an explosive belt.”
“We blame no one yet,” Abdulsalam said of both attacks, which he said “only serve the United States and those trying to implement” its agendas in Yemen.
Last week, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Partisans of Shariah in Yemen, released a statement threatening to launch attacks against rebels in “Al-Jawf, Haja and Saada” to seek revenge for Salafists “attacked” in Dammaj, a town in the north where both sides frequently clash.
On Monday, a suicide bomber wearing a military uniform detonated explosives as Yemeni troops were rehearsing for a parade killing 96 troops in the capital Sanaa.
FROM: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Bomber strikes again in Yemen; many killed
