Suicide bomb in Sanaa kills at least 67

Witnesses said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt at a checkpoint at the entrance to the protest site where supporters of the Houthi rebels had gathered.

Shiite Houthi rebels carry a wounded man at the scene of the suicide bomb attack in Sanaa on October 9, 2014. At least 67 people were killed. Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

SANAA // At least 67 people were killed in Yemen on Thursday in two suicide bombings, including one that targeted a Houthi rally in the capital.

The health ministry said at least 47 people died and 75 were wounded when a suicide attacker set off his explosives in central Sanaa.

The attacker targeted a gathering of Houthis and their supporters, mingling among the protesters as they were getting ready for the rally in the city’s Tahrir Square before he detonated his explosives, security and health officials said.

“It was a huge explosion,” said Mohamed Salim, a witness. “I saw many dead bodies.”

Those gathered in Tahrir were protesting against what they say is foreign interference in Yemen’s internal political affairs.

The Houthis, who now control most of the Sanaa, this week rejected president Abdurabu Mansur Hadi’s nominee for prime minister, saying he was imposed under US pressure.

With Houthis entrenched in the capital, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called on its Sunni militants to attack the Shiite rebels.

“The Houthis are Al Qaeda’s primary enemy now,” said Majed Al Mathhaji, an independent political analyst in Sanaa. “The conflict between them is likely to increase.”

The dead and wounded were taken to three hospitals. At one of them, the Al Moayed hospital, victims’ body parts were piled up on the hospital floor, and two severed heads were placed next to two headless bodies. The body of a man was placed nearby, one of his legs next to it.

There were at least six children in critical condition and some of the wounded arrived in hospital badly burnt, missing an eye or a limb.

At the scene of the blast in Tahrir Square, one of Sanaa’s busiest areas, blood pooled on the ground as volunteers scooped up body parts from the pavement.

Sandals and other personal belongings of the victims were scattered about.

The second bombing took place on the outskirts of the southern port city of Mukalla in Hadarmout province when a suicide car bomber rammed his car against a security outpost, killing at least 20 soldiers and wounding 15, the officials said.

Hadarmout is one of several strongholds of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington to be the most dangerous offshoot of the terrorist network.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack, but both bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, which has for years staged suicide bombings against army troops, security personnel and government facilities.

Last week, Al Qaeda in Yemen warned it would target the Houthis and called on the country’s Sunnis to close ranks and fight the Shiite rebels.

The Houthis had called the Sanaa rally to protest Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak’s nomination as prime minister. Before the bombing, Mr bin Mubarak asked Mr Hadi to relieve him of the post.

Despite the bombing and Mr bin Mubarak declining the premiership, the rally went ahead, with some 4,000 Houthis calling on Mr Hadi to step down and chanting slogans against the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Rebel leader Abdel Malik Al Houthi said on Wednesday that his group was surprised by Mr bin Mubarak’s nomination, saying it came after Mr Hadi met the US ambassador to Yemen.

Mr Al Houthi called Mr Hadi a “puppet” in the hands of foreign powers.

“Blatant foreign interference is a form of circumventing the popular revolution,” he said.

The Houthis took control of Sanaa last month but a UN-brokered deal subsequently managed to bring an end to the fighting and street battles in the capital that left more than 300 dead.

The Houthi takeover of Sanaa followed weeks of protests by their supporters in the capital to press demands for a larger share in power and a change in government.

The September 21 deal called for the appointment of a new head of government, and for armed Houthis to pull out of the city.

Deteriorating security across the country has raised the prospect of the state’s collapse along tribal and sectarian lines, and has provided Al Qaeda with an area of operation outside of government control.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Saud Al Faisal warned last month that Yemen’s “circle of violence” could threaten regional and international security.

* Associated Press and Bloomberg