Islamic State bomb attack on Huthi rebel leaders in Yemen leaves 28 dead

Police officers inspect the site of the car bomb attack in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

Islamic State bomb attack on Huthi rebel leaders in Yemen leaves 28 dead

The bombing was part of an escalation of Isis attacks against Shia Muslims as Huthi rebels seize territory in Yemen

 

Agence France-Presse in Sanaa

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on two Huthi rebel leaders in Sanaa on Monday night which medics say killed at least 28 people, including eight women.

The car bomb targeted Huthi rebel chief brothers Faycal and Hamid Jayache during a gathering to mourn the death of a family member, a security source said.

Huthi rebels closed down the area surrounding the city centre after the attack, allowing only emergency services to help evacuate the victims, witnesses said.

In a statement posted online, Isis said it had organised the attack on what it called a Shia nest in the Yemeni capital.

The extremist Sunni jihadist group considers Shia Muslims heretics and has frequently targeted them in attacks in several countries.

The most recent, a suicide bombing by a Saudi national on Friday in a Shia mosque in Kuwait, killed 26 people and wounded 227.

Isis has also claimed a car bombing on 20 June against a Shia mosque in Sanaa that killed two and wounded 16, and another series of attacks in the Yemeni capital four days earlier that killed 31.

The jihadist group, which marked the first anniversary of the declaration of its “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria on Monday, has been ramping up its deadly attacks in Yemen since March.

Iran-backed Huthi rebels have seized vast swathes of Yemen since launching an offensive in July 2014, forcing the president, Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, to flee the country.

Neither peace talks in Geneva nor a Saudi-led air campaign that began in March has driven the rebels from power and they remain locked in battle with pro-government fighters, Sunni tribesmen and southern separatists.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/30/islamic-state-bomb-attack-on-huthi-rebel-leaders-in-yemen-leaves-28-dead

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