Sanaa, August 15: The blast, caused by a suspected al-Qaeda car bomb, took place late on Sunday when anti-regime Houthi leaders were having a meeting in a complex at Matamma, a district in Yemen’s northeastern Al-Jouf Province, Xinhua reported.
“At least 14 Shia Houthi rebels were killed and about five others were severely injured when a suspected al-Qaeda car bomb hit the main gate of the Shia-seized government compound in Matamma district in the northeast province of Al-Jouf,” a Yemeni Interior Ministry official claimed on condition of anonymity.
The official added that “the suicide attack bore the hallmarks of the resurgent al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).”
However, the Houthi media office in northern Sa’ada province blamed the United States for the attack, saying that at least one Shia fighter was killed and some others were wounded.
The blast comes one day after Yemen’s major opposition group, the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, also known as the Islamic Party of Reforms, signed a tribes-mediated agreement with Shia Houthis as part of an effort to put an end to the armed clashes in the Middle Eastern country.
The Islamic party is a member of Yemen’s opposition coalition, which plans to declare the formation of a national council in the coming days.
The council is meant to rule the country during the transitional period once Yemen’s embattled Ali Abdullah Saleh — who was relocated to Saudi Arabia to receive medical treatment for injuries sustained in an attack on his presidential palace in early June — is ousted.
—–Agencies