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Al-Qaida suicide bomber kills 14 Shi’ite rebels in north Yemen

25 May 2012 22:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A suicide car bombing killed at least 14 members of a Shi’ite rebel group in Yemen’s northern province of al-Jouf on Friday, government officials said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The al-Qaida group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

"A total of 14 members of the al-Houthis Shi’ite rebel group were killed on Friday when a bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a crowd gathering at a school in al-Hazm district," an official of the Interior Ministry told Xinhua, requesting anonymity.

Several others were wounded, he added.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) told Xinhua that the AQAP is behind the deadly attack, without providing details.

The attack came four days after a suicide bomber affiliated to the AQAP targeted a military parade in the capital of Sanaa that killed at least 90 soldiers and wounded more than 200 others.

Elsewhere in the northern Saada province, the al-Houthis Shi’ ite group said in a statement that it foiled another suicide bomb attack attempted to target a weekly anti-government protest rally in Saada’s central city on Friday.

They said the "suicide bomber with explosive strapped under his clothes blew himself up early on Friday, killing himself only."

Yemen’s northern provinces are strongholds of the Shi’ite rebel group, particularly Saada, where they fought a six-year sporadic war against the government, while the terrorist AQAP entrenched in the southern provinces and seized several cities, taking advantage of the unrest that rattled the country last year.

With support of the U.S. air force, the Yemeni government has launched an all-out offensive against the AQAP militants since early May, killing hundreds of terrorists including some senior leaders.