Middle East News
Eleven killed, 44 injured in Yemen mosque bombing (2nd Roundup)
By DPA
May 2, 2008, 16:45 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Eleven people were killed and 44 injured in a powerful explosion outside a mosque in the volatile north-western Yemeni province of Saada on Friday, police officials said.

The officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that a booby- trapped motorcycle blew up outside the Bin Salman mosque shortly after the weekly prayers in the provincial city of Saada.

Witnesses said the bomb went off as worshippers were leaving the mosque.

'Dozens of injured people were seen lying outside the mosque, and several cars were burned by the blast,' a witness said in a telephone call from Saada, some 230 kilometres north of Sanaa.

He said ambulances were seen rushing injured worshippers to hospitals. Police officials said earlier that nine people were killed and 32 injured.

Local sources in Saada said a regional army commander, Askar Ali al-Zuail, was the target of the attack, but he survived unharmed.

Al-Zuail is an aide to Brigadier General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the military commander of the north-western region, who has been leading the battle against the Shiite rebels in Saada since mid-2004.

In a statement carried by official Saba news agency, the Interior Ministry accused the Shiite rebels of carrying out the attack.

The leader of the rebel group, however, denied any connection to the bombing.

'We criticise and condemn this regrettable act ... and extend condolences and sympathy to the victims' families,' al-Houthi said in a statement sent to journalists by email.

'We insist on the need for an objective fact-finding investigation to find out the party behind those acts,' the statement said.

Al-Houthi, whose outlawed 'Believing Youth' group fought with government forces in Saada for more than three years, said the attackers 'intended to blow up the war anew and foil all efforts for establishing peace and reconciliation and.'

Brigadier Muhammad al-Qahm, chief commander of police forces in Saada, said a soldier, a child and a woman were among those killed.

He told Saba that security forces arrested several suspects after the attack, and that they were being interrogated.

The attack comes one day after four army troops were killed and several others injured after Shiite rebels attacked an army personnel carrier in Saada.

The sources said the attack took place in Za'afa in the mountainous Haidan district, where armed members of the 'Believing Youth' hold sway over strategic mountainous locations near the border with Saudi Arabia.

It was the second attack on army vehicles since the fighting renewed on April 25, one day after authorities said Qatari mediators had resumed efforts to follow up on the implementation of a Qatari- brokered ceasefire deal.

On Wednesday, seven soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded in a similar attack on a military convoy in the Dhahian city in northern Saada, the defence ministry said.

This marked the first attack on a mosque amid the conflict.

Tens of thousands of army troops have been deployed in Saada to crush the revolt that originally began after Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi, the elder brother of Abdul-Malik, established the movement in March 2004. Hussein was killed by the army in September that year.

Waves of violent clashes since mid-2004 have left hundreds of government troops and rebels dead, and displaced thousands of civilians in the volatile region.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has repeatedly accused the Houthis of trying to topple the republican regime and re-establish the rule of the Zaidi Imamate, a royal regime that was overthrown by a revolution in 1962.

Followers of al-Houthi belong mostly to the Zaidi sect of Islam, which is regarded as a moderate sect.