SANAA, 8 May 2005 — Five people were injured in the Yemeni capital Sanaa yesterday after a man lobbed a hand grenade into a military bus, eyewitnesses said. The attack occurred around midday in the Hail commercial district of the city.
Three Iraqi experts who teach at the air defense academy were among the five military personnel wounded in the attack, said a Yemeni official requesting anonymity.
Witnesses said the assailant was driving a pick-up vehicle when he hurled the grenade at the bus carrying air force officers and soldiers. He managed to flee the scene.
The wounded were taken to the military hospital in Sanaa. Some had serious injuries, the witnesses and medical sources said.
Police sources said they believed the attacker might be one of the supporters of the outlawed “Believing Youth” militant group, whose followers fought army forces in northern Yemen for two weeks last month.
Yesterday’s incident was the latest in a series of attacks on military vehicles in Sanaa. In a similar attack on April 9, an assailant threw hand grenade into a military car, injuring two men and badly damaging the vehicle.
On April 25, a passer-by was killed and several others injured when an assailant hurled a hand grenade at troops in the city.
Police officials have linked the first two attacks to the Believing Youth group.
Meanwhile, Yemeni troops yesterday captured a son of the rebel leader who was involved in the recent fighting in the northwestern mountains.
Soldiers detained Amiruddin Al-Houthi, son of Badruddin Al-Houthi, in Saada province, a local government official said.
Amiruddin, who took part in the rebellion started by his slain brother Hussein and continued by his father, was arrested in Majz, some 50 km north of Saada town, as government forces continued to comb the area to track down the rebels, the official said.
Authorities announced last month that they had put down the uprising which left some 280 people dead in two weeks, but that leaders of the “sedition” were still on the run.
Badruddin Al-Houthi tops the list of wanted fugitives, in addition to another son, Abdul Malak, and two field commanders — Abdullah Ayedh Al-Razami and Yussef Al-Madani. Authorities said Thursday they had arrested 11 rebels, including a woman, suspected of carrying out attacks in the capital as part of the uprising.
— With input from agencies
