Sana’a: An attack on Al Houthi rebel leaders in the Yemeni capital claimed by Daesh killed at least 28 people, medics said, the latest deadly assault on Al Houthis by the extremists.
Yemen was previously the preserve of Daesh’s rival Al Qaida, which controls swathes of the south and east, but since March the group has claimed a string of high-profile attacks.
The car bomb targeted Al Houthi rebel chief brothers Faisal and Hamid Jayash during a gathering to mourn the death of a family member, a security source said.
Eight women were among the dead.
Al Houthi rebels closed down the surrounding area in the centre of Sana’a after the attack, only allowing through emergency services to help evacuate the victims, witnesses said.
The explosion blew a crater in the road, took chunks out of nearby walls and left debris strewn across the street.
In a statement posted online, Daesh said it had organised the attack on what it called a “Shiite nest”.
Just Friday, a Saudi Daesh suicide bomber killed 26 people and wounded 227 in a mosque in Kuwait.
In Yemen, Daesh claimed a car bombing that killed two people outside a mosque in Sana’a on June 20 and a series of attacks in the capital four days earlier that killed 31.
The group, which marked the first anniversary of the declaration of its “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria on Monday, began its Yemen campaign in March with a series of bombings of mosques that killed 142 people.
The deadly attacks have overshadowed the operations of Daesh’s rival in Yemen, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
AQAP has taken advantage of the Al Houthi rebellion to consolidate its grip of the southeastern province of Hadramout, overrunning its capital Mukalla in March.
And it is still regarded as the network’s most dangerous branch by Washington, which has kept up a drone war against in Mukalla.
But analysts said that Daesh was now clearly in the ascendant.
Daesh is “in the process of supplanting AQAP, which is becoming just one of a number of forces in the Sunni tribal camp in southern Yemen,” said Mathieu Guidere, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Toulouse in France.
The Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels have seized vast swathes of the country since launching an offensive in July 2014, forcing President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia.
Neither peace talks in Geneva nor a Saudi-led air campaign begun in March have driven them from power and they remain locked in battle with pro-government fighters, tribesmen and southern separatists, as well as the rival Islamist militants.
Yemen’s official Saba news agency, which is controlled by Al Houthis, reported early on Tuesday that the rebels had launched a Scud missile at the Al Salil military base, near the Saudi capital Riyadh.
“The missile is in response to the aggression of Saudi Arabia, which is increasing its criminal air raids against our country,” Saba reported, citing a military spokesman.
“This is another message to the forces of oppression,” he added, promising “new surprises in the coming days.”
Saudi Arabia said its base was safe, according to Al Arabiya.
A suicide bomber attacked a rebel position in the central province of Baida overnight, security sources said. There was no immediate word on casualties or claim of responsibility.
Further south, in Dhaleh province, forces opposed to the Al Houthis said on Tuesday that they had killed 167 rebels and captured 30 in three days of heavy fighting.
Dhaleh lies close to the battleground southern port of Aden, Yemen’s second city.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an investigation on Monday after Saudi-led air strikes hit the UN Development Programme compound in the city, wounding a guard and causing serious damage.
In a statement on Tuesday, Yemen’s journalists’ union accused the Al Houthis of systematic ill-treatment of its members and demanded the release of 12 they had detained.