Suicide bombers target Shia fighters in Yemen

Twin car bomb attacks targetting Shia fighters have killed at least 10 people in Yemen’s western port city of al-Hudaydah.

Thursday’s attack also left dozens of others wounded, the AFP news gency said without giving precise figurers. “The two explosions were the result of two car bombs and left dozens dead  and

wounded,” said an official.

The first bomb detonated close to the headquarters of the Shia rebel group known as Ansarullah, which seized the town at the end of September. The other bomb went off close to another position of the Shia fighters west of al-Hudaydah University, not far from the site of the first attack.

Three other suspected bombers were killed by members of a local security patrol before they were able to attack, sources in the Shia armed movement, Houthi, said.

“The bombs rocked the city. They were targeting a building that belonged to Houthi movement officials,” said a resident.

A Twitter account belonging to Yemen’s Ansar al-Sharia, a Sunni militant group affiliated to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Thursday’s attack came as a new Yemeni government won a confidence vote in parliament a month after its formation.

Yemen has been in turmoil since Houthi rebel fighters captured the capital, Sanaa, in September and forced the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa to resign. A Houthi expansion south and west of the capital has led to clashes with Sunni tribesmen allied to al-Qaeda, with scores of casualties on both sides.

--Extracts from Punch News