Deadly car bomb explodes outside Sanaa mosque

SANAA - A car bomb exploded outside a Shia mosque in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding five, according to AFP.

The bomb, at the Al-Raoudh mosque in southeast Sanaa, went off as worshippers were leaving after evening prayers.

Reuters quoted Yemen’s Houthi-controlled state news agency Saba as saying that “a car bomb exploded this evening, leading to the martyrdom and injury of numerous citizens".

A security official confirmed the attack, saying the "bomb-rigged car had been parked near the Al-Raoudh mosque".

Tuesday's bloodshed came two days after UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived in Sanaa bidding to secure a humanitarian ceasefire in a conflict estimated to have killed 3,000 people, mostly civilians.

The capital of Sunni-majority Yemen has been under the control of the Shia Houthi militia since September.

Responsibility for Tuesday's bombing was claimed by the Islamic State via their website, according to AFP. The attack was the second within weeks against mosques in Sanaa attended by Shia Muslims.

The previous one was also claimed by the Islamic State, a Sunni group that considers Shia to be heretics and that has also recently bombed mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Since overrunning the capital, the Houthi rebels have expanded their control to other parts of Yemen, forcing President Abedrabbo Manour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes on the country since late March.

Four Houthi fighters were also killed and 10 wounded on Tuesday evening in a suicide car bombing that targeted a police station in Houthi-held Baida, in central Yemen, reported AFP.

Baida is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also very active in southern and southeastern Yemen.

Meanwhile, coalition warplanes bombed Houthi positions on Tuesday in and around Yemen's second city Aden, targeting an intelligence headquarters and television studio in the southern port, said military officials.

In neighbouring Lahj province, raids were carried out against a weapons depot and gatherings of the Houthis and their allies loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the sources said.

On Monday, Saudi-led bombing of a market in a Lahj town killed 41 civilians and six Houthi fighters, according to an updated toll from medical officials.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said the airstrikes killed 124 people on Monday in Lahj and other parts of Yemen, one of the deadliest days in the coalition air war launched on 26 March.

There was no way to verify the toll.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, meanwhile, said five children were among 12 people killed on Saturday at a shelter in an Aden kindergarten.

Medical sources had previously reported the deaths of six refugees in the Katyusha rocket attack, which one official blamed on the Houthis.

The nine-nation Saudi-led coalition launched the airstrikes on Yemen to halt an advance by the Iran-backed Houthis who drove Hadi into exile.

More than one million people have been displaced inside the country since March, joining the more than 300,000 displaced there before the fighting began, and more than 46,000 people have fled Yemen, according to the UNHCR.