A SUICIDE bomber struck at a wake in Yemen’s southern city of Jaar at the weekend, killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens more, the country’s defence ministry said, in the deadliest attack since the army declared victory on Islamist militants in June.
The bomber appeared to have targeted the head of a group of tribal fighters that sided with the Yemeni army in an offensive that drove al-Qaeda-linked militants from their strongholds in the province of Abyan.
“This is a cowardly, criminal, terrorist attack,” said Abyan governor Jamal al-Aqel, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the bomber’s identity.
The attack, on Saturday night, highlighted the threat of Islamist militancy in Yemen and will alarm the US and Saudi Arabia, which increasingly view the impoverished state as a front line in their war on al-Qaeda.
A local official said charred bodies were strewn around the site of the blast in which Abdul Latif Al Sayed, the leader of tribal fighting units who has previously survived assassination attempts, was injured. Two of his brothers were killed. – (Reuters)