SANAA: A suicide bomber driving a minibus killed at least 35 people on Wednesday as cadets gathered to enroll at a police academy in the heart of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Yemen’s local Al-Qaeda branch, targeted in frequent US drone strikes in the country, has carried out similar attacks in the past.
At the scene of the blast, the dead and wounded lay on a sidewalk against a wall. Water sprayed by firefighters to extinguish the blaze mixed with their pooled blood. A charred taxi cab smoldered near what remained of the minibus, meters from a gate for the police academy, located in a residential area.
The bomber struck as lines of cadets waited outside the academy, preparing to enroll, witnesses said.
“We were all gathering and ... (the bomber) exploded right next to all of the police college classmates,” eyewitness Jamil Al-Khaleedi told The Associated Press. “It went off among all of them, and they flew through the air.”
The head of police in Sanaa, Abdul-Razak Al-Moayed, said the bomber killed at least 35 people. Another security official said at least three civilians died in the blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists.
Tribal leaders and Yemeni officials say the rising power of the Houthis, their advance into Sunni areas and the backlash over drone strikes has caused Al-Qaeda to surge in strength and find new recruits.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Yemen’s local Al-Qaeda branch, targeted in frequent US drone strikes in the country, has carried out similar attacks in the past.
At the scene of the blast, the dead and wounded lay on a sidewalk against a wall. Water sprayed by firefighters to extinguish the blaze mixed with their pooled blood. A charred taxi cab smoldered near what remained of the minibus, meters from a gate for the police academy, located in a residential area.
The bomber struck as lines of cadets waited outside the academy, preparing to enroll, witnesses said.
“We were all gathering and ... (the bomber) exploded right next to all of the police college classmates,” eyewitness Jamil Al-Khaleedi told The Associated Press. “It went off among all of them, and they flew through the air.”
The head of police in Sanaa, Abdul-Razak Al-Moayed, said the bomber killed at least 35 people. Another security official said at least three civilians died in the blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists.
Tribal leaders and Yemeni officials say the rising power of the Houthis, their advance into Sunni areas and the backlash over drone strikes has caused Al-Qaeda to surge in strength and find new recruits.
No comments:
Post a Comment