YEMEN-SECURITY/BOMB-IS STATEMENT Car bomb in Yemeni capital hits mourners, dozens wounded

Record ID: 148981

  • Title: YEMEN-SECURITY/BOMB-IS STATEMENT Car bomb in Yemeni capital hits mourners, dozens wounded
  • Date: 29th June 2015
  • Summary: SANAA, YEMEN (JUNE 29, 2015) (REUTERS) ARMED HOUTHI MEN STANDING, MEN CARRYING DAMAGED MOTORBIKE VARIOUS OF DAMAGED CAR VARIOUS OF PEOPLE STANDING NEAR DAMAGED CAR BUILDING WITH BROKEN WINDOWS DAMAGED CAR (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WITNESS YEHIA ALI SAYING: "At approximately eleven thirty we heard a loud explosion, it was a truly powerful explosion. We came out to see what happe
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAXNB3G013NMYVXBMWHTCTAVUI
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A car bomb claimed by Islamic State exploded in the Yemeni capital Sanaa overnight on Monday (June 29), medics said, wounding at least 28 people gathered to mourn another attack earlier this month.
    "At approximately eleven thirty we heard a loud explosion, it was a truly powerful explosion. We came out to see what happened and the homes were severally damaged. It was an explosive placed inside a car, the car was an Echo, that had been parked here since about eight in the evening and no one paid attention to it," witness Yehia Ali said.
    In a new sign that three months of war in Yemen was ratcheting up, the country's military spokesman said its forces had launched a Scud missile at a Saudi military base on Tuesday.
    A Saudi-led military alliance has been bombing Yemen's dominant Houthi group and its allies in the army to dislodge them from the capital and restore the exiled president.
    A sectarian-tinged conflict has raged throughout Yemen's south and centre, pitting the Shi'ite Muslim Houthis against mostly Sunni local militiamen who support the Arab intervention.
    The political vacuum has given hardline Sunni militants greater room to operate. They regard the Houthis as apostates worthy of death, and the overnight blast was the latest in a series of attacks on the group and their supporters.
    "The explosion was caused by a car bomb which exploded behind the military hospital in the Sha'oub district in Sanaa, which injured 28 people including 12 women in a building where victims of a previous attack were being mourned," a medical source said.
    In a statement posted online, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it had targeted the area "out of revenge for the Muslims against the Houthi apostates."
    Despite the months of Arab air strikes backing up the Houthis' armed opponents in Yemen, the Houthis have not lost ground on the battlefield and have stepped up their exchanges of artillery and rocket fire with Saudi forces along their border.
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