Zee Media Bureau, Sanaa :
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle outside a police academy in the heart of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, killing at least 50 and injuring more, reports said.
Most of those killed or injured might be cadets as the bomber reportedly exploded his car near a bunch of academy cadets.
The explosion took place in the morning (7:00am) when many candidates were standing in a queue waiting to be recruited in the police academy, security officials said reportedly.
Witnesses told Xinhua that a mini-bus was being driven very fast on the street along the wall of the police academy in central Sanaa before it exploded at the academy’s main gate. The explosion could be heard across the city. Gunshots were also heard in the area after the explosion.
“The explosion occurred around 7 in the morning. A bus came to the gate of the academy and a man blew it up here. More than 50 people were killed in attack,” a cadet of the police academy, Nabil Ali, said.
Soon after the attack, ambulances rushed to the site of explosion and police cordoned off the area. It was a chaotic scene with wreckage and bodies strewn all over the place.
Medics said about 100 people were sent to three hospitals near the police academy, many of them in critical condition. The toll could rise in hours.
This is the most deadly attack in Sanaa since Oct 9, 2014, when an Al Qaeda suicide
bomber blew himself up at a gathering of the Shia Houthi group, killing at least 47 people.
Though no one has so far immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, however similar such attacks have been carried out by Yemen’s local al Qaeda branch. Of late the militants from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have staged an increasing number of bombings and shootings across the country.
The AQAP has been targeted in frequent US drone strikes in the country.
Washington considers al Qaeda in Yemen to be the world’s most dangerous branch of the terror network as it has been linked to several failed attacks on the US homeland.
The blast comes as Shiite rebels known as Houthis seized large areas of Yemen, including Sanaa, earlier this year as part of a protracted power struggle with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Their critics view them as a proxy for Shiite Iran, charges the rebels deny.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle outside a police academy in the heart of Yemen’s capital Sanaa, killing at least 50 and injuring more, reports said.
Most of those killed or injured might be cadets as the bomber reportedly exploded his car near a bunch of academy cadets.
The explosion took place in the morning (7:00am) when many candidates were standing in a queue waiting to be recruited in the police academy, security officials said reportedly.
Witnesses told Xinhua that a mini-bus was being driven very fast on the street along the wall of the police academy in central Sanaa before it exploded at the academy’s main gate. The explosion could be heard across the city. Gunshots were also heard in the area after the explosion.
“The explosion occurred around 7 in the morning. A bus came to the gate of the academy and a man blew it up here. More than 50 people were killed in attack,” a cadet of the police academy, Nabil Ali, said.
Soon after the attack, ambulances rushed to the site of explosion and police cordoned off the area. It was a chaotic scene with wreckage and bodies strewn all over the place.
Medics said about 100 people were sent to three hospitals near the police academy, many of them in critical condition. The toll could rise in hours.
This is the most deadly attack in Sanaa since Oct 9, 2014, when an Al Qaeda suicide
bomber blew himself up at a gathering of the Shia Houthi group, killing at least 47 people.
Though no one has so far immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, however similar such attacks have been carried out by Yemen’s local al Qaeda branch. Of late the militants from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have staged an increasing number of bombings and shootings across the country.
The AQAP has been targeted in frequent US drone strikes in the country.
Washington considers al Qaeda in Yemen to be the world’s most dangerous branch of the terror network as it has been linked to several failed attacks on the US homeland.
The blast comes as Shiite rebels known as Houthis seized large areas of Yemen, including Sanaa, earlier this year as part of a protracted power struggle with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Their critics view them as a proxy for Shiite Iran, charges the rebels deny.
