An Islamic State-claimed car bombing in San'a late Monday night
injured 38 people, officials and witnesses said, the latest in a
series of attacks targeting Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels.
The bombing took place near a military hospital in the al-Sayyah
area of the Yemeni capital, security officials said.
An unnamed woman parked the car in front of the home of a family
mourning the death of their son before it exploded, neighbors and
the officials said.
Islamic State's Yemen affiliate, San'a Province, claimed
responsibility for the blast in a Twitter post, according to the
SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors global extremist
groups.
The Sunni militant group described the bombing as an assault on
Shiite "polytheists."
Yemen's Houthi rebels, who took control of Yemen's government in
February and forced President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi into exile,
adhere to the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam. Islamic State
considers the sect heretical.
It was the third bombing claimed by Islamic State in Yemen in
two weeks. Four car bombs hit Houthi targets in San'a on June 17,
killing several people and wounding dozens.
Another car bomb detonated outside a Shiite mosque in San'a
three days later.
San'a Province made headlines in March, when it claimed twin
suicide bombings at Shiite mosques in San'a that killed more than
130 people.
Yemen's growing number of Islamic State sympathizers are thought
to be mostly disenchanted former members of al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, the terrorist organization's Yemeni branch, which the
U.S. considers the world's most dangerous al Qaeda affiliate.
The attacks come as a Saudi-led air campaign targeting the
Houthis enters its third month. Saudi Arabia began strikes against
the Houthis on March 26, shortly after the Saudi-backed Mr. Hadi
fled to Riyadh. But they have failed to wrest control of San'a or
other parts of Yemen from the rebels.
They also come as terrorist attacks—many of them linked to
Islamic State affiliates—proliferate across the Middle East.
An Islamic State-claimed attack on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait
killed at least 27 people on Friday. A gunman in Tunisia killed 38
people at a resort hotel the same day. Islamic State later claimed
that attack.
Yemen's Saudi strikes, accompanied by a blockade of the
country's ports, have led to increasingly dire shortages of food,
fuel and medicine. More than 2,500 people have died in the
conflict, according to United Nations estimates.
Write to Asa Fitch at asa.fitch@wsj.com
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