Suicide bomber attacks Shiite rebels in Yemen

SANAA — A suicide car bomber rammed into a field hospital run by Shiite rebels in Yemen on Sunday, killing one person and wounding others, a security official said.

The field hospital some 175 kilometres northeast of the capital was used by Shiite rebels, known as the Houthis, to treat their wounded from battles in recent months against rival Sunni Islamists. The Houthis swept through the capital earlier this month after consolidating their grip over northern provinces.

The official said one person killed and others were wounded in the bombing but was not able to provide exact figures. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

The attack came as hundreds demonstrated in Sanaa, urging state security forces to return to the streets and demanding Houthis' exit. "For a secure capital free of armed militias," read a banner raised by demonstrators in Sanaa, who also called for the return of weapons seized from security forces by the Houthis.

Yemen's main political forces signed a security deal on Saturday in which the Houthis agreed to disarm and withdraw from areas they recently seized. The Houthis' main rivals — the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islah Party — also signed the deal, part of a comprehensive agreement brokered by the United Nations.

The agreement would grant the Houthis some executive power as it stipulates that the president name two advisers, one from the Houthis and one from Yemen’s southern separatist movement. It also calls for the formation of a new government within a month and the restoration of fuel subsidies, which the outgoing government ended in July, sparking the political confrontation now engulfing the country.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s local Al Qaeda branch claimed responsibility for firing a rocket Saturday near the US Embassy in Sanaa.

Militant websites posted a statement from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on Twitter claiming responsibility for firing the rocket. It said the attack was in response to a drone attack that wounded children in Al Jawf province on Friday. It said the rocket assault wounded several embassy guards and destroyed an armored vehicle.

Yemeni security officials said a man on a motorcycle fired the portable missile, causing no casualties. They said the rocket targeted a building some two blocks away from the US Embassy.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday that there was no indication that the embassy was the target and that none of its staff were wounded.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen’s local branch, is considered by Washington to be the most dangerous affiliate of the global terror network.