Dozens of Yemenis were martyred on Thursday as a powerful suicide bombing rocked the capital Sanaa.
At least 43 people were martyred as Ansarullah revolutionaries, also known as Houthis, were preparing to stage a protest in Sanaa, al-Masirah channel reported on Thursday.
Earlier, a source close to Houthis put the death toll at 32.
Witnesses said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt at a checkpoint at the entrance to the protest site, with steel balls strewn at the scene.
Ansarullah rejected on Wednesday the appointment of the country’s new prime minister, saying the decision has been made at the behest of the United States.
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi on Tuesday appointed Chief of Staff Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak as premier.
The opposition group accused the embassy of the United States in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, of involvement in Hadi’s pick for the post of prime minister.
Leader of Ansarullah, Sayyed Abdul-Malek al-Houthi stressed that the latest developments in the country was merely popular revolution, noting that all the Yemenis took to streets without taking their sects into consideration.
Sayyed al-Houthi pointed out that the revolution in Yemen had two choices, either to be defeated or to reach its legitimate goals.
The Ansarullah activists, who played a key role in the ouster of former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been staging demonstrations in the capital for more than a month, demanding resignation of the government over what they call its corruption and marginalization of the Shia community in Yemen.
On September 21, Ansarullah fighters took over Sana’a, following week-long clashes with Salafist militants backed by Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, Saleh’s stepbrother.
A UN-backed ceasefire deal, which was subsequently inked, called for the withdrawal of the revolutionaries from the capital once a neutral prime minister was picked.
Source: Agencies
| 09-10-2014 - 12:27 Last updated 09-10-2014 - 12:27 |
At least 63 killed in Yemen suicide attacks
Published Thursday, October 9, 2014
Updated at 12:41 pm (GMT+3): At least 43 people were killed on Thursday in a suicide attack apparently targeting a Houthi checkpoint in the center of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, witnesses including a Reuters reporter said.
In another attack in southeastern Yemen, a suspected Al-Qaeda suicide bomber killed 20 soldiers at an army checkpoint, the military said, revising an earlier toll of 10 dead.
One witness counted at least 20 bodies after the bombing in Tahrir Square in central Sanaa, which is under control of Houthis. An AFP photographer saw the lifeless bodies of four children among the victims.
Many other people were wounded in the attack, other witnesses said, as supporters of the Houthi rebels were preparing to stage a protest.
Medics at nearby Police Hospital sent urgent calls for doctors to help cope with a high number of casualties.
Medics said dozens were also wounded in the Sanaa blast -- the largest in the capital since a May 2012 Qaeda attack on an army parade killed around 100 people.
A policemen guarding a local bank near the scene said a man apparently wearing a suicide belt approached the Houthi checkpoint. "He then exploded amidst the (Houthi) security and ordinary people near by," the policemen told Reuters.
Houthi supporters gathered after the explosion chanting slogans demanding the fall of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The president infuriated the rebels earlier this week by naming his chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, as prime minister following a UN-brokered peace deal under which the insurgents would withdraw from Sanaa.
Bin Mubarak late Wednesday declined to take the post, saying he wanted to "preserve the national unity and protect the country from divisions."
No one has claimed responsibility for the Sanaa attack, but the incident appears to mirror previous bombings carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
20 soldiers killed
In the Hadramawt province of southeast Yemen, a military official said 20 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing at an army post on the western outskirts of the city of Mukalla.
A tank and two army vehicles were destroyed in the blast, the official said.
(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar)
كلمة السيد عبد الملك الحوثي ، قائد حركة انصار الله | اليمن
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