Deadly car bomb hits Shiite mosque in Yemen capital

Smoke billows following an air-strike by the Saudi-led coalition on a weapons depot, currently controlled by Yemeni Shiite Huthi rebels, on July 6, 2015 in the capital Sanaa. AFP Photo

A car bomb exploded outside a mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on July 7, killing at least one person and wounding five, in a fresh attack on Shiite rebels claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

Meanwhile, a Saudi-led coalition bombarded cities and towns in southern Yemen, as the targeted rebels accused it of killing 124 people on July 6 in one of the deadliest days of its air war.
 
July 7 bloodshed came two days after UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrived in Sanaa bidding to secure a humanitarian truce in a conflict estimated to have killed 3,000 people, mostly civilians.
 
The car bomb, at the Al-Raoudh mosque in southeast Sanaa, went off as worshippers were leaving after evening prayers, witnesses and a security official said.
 
A medical source said at least one person was killed and five more wounded.
 
In a brief statement posted on jihadist websites, ISIL said it had "taken revenge" against the Huthi rebels who have seized swathes of the country.
 
Elsewhere on July 7 evening, four rebels were killed and 10 wounded in a suicide car bombing that targeted a police station in rebel-held Baida, in central Yemen, a security official and witnesses said.
 
Baida is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also very active in southern and southeastern Yemen.
 
The capital of Sunni-majority Yemen has been under the control of the Iran-backed rebels since September.
 
They have since expanded their grip to other parts of Yemen, forcing President Abedrabbo Manour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.
         
July 7 bombings came three weeks after a similar attack on a mosque in Sanaa frequented by Shiite Muslims....

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