SANA’S, Yemen — Some 26 civilians including 16 schoolgirls were among the dead Tuesday in a double bomb attack in the central Yemeni city of Radaa, authorities said.
One car bomb hit the girls' school bus while the other targeted a "gathering of citizens" in the city centre, the Supreme Security Committee said in a statement carried by the official Saba news agency.
Smoke rises from the site of a car bomb explosion in Radda town, 160 kilometres south of the capital Sana’a, Yemen Dec 16. Two suicide car bombers rammed their vehicles into a Shiite rebels’ checkpoint and a house south of the Yemeni capital Tuesday, as a school bus traveling nearby killing at least 25 dead including at least 15 primary school students, Defense Ministry, rebels and witnesses. (AP photo)
Local resident Abdullah Hurriyah told dpa that the first bomb went off at a checkpoint manned by the mainly Shiite Houthi rebel group in the city as the schoolgirls' bus was passing.
A second bomb exploded minutes later at the house of a local Houthi leader, Mr Hurriyah said.
A local resident, who declined to give his name, said Houthi fighters had blocked all streets in the city and residents were staying indoors fearing further attacks.
Houthi official Ali al-Quhum said there were also fatalities among the Shiite militia's supporters, but gave no specific toll.
The Radaa area is a stronghold of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Houthi fighters moved into the area in October in an effort to drive out the Islamist militants.
AQAP, which sees the Houthis as heretics, started systematically targetting them after the Shiite militia seized control of the capital Sana'a in September.
AQAP is widely seen as one of the most active and dangerous branches of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Meanwhile, President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi ordered security officials in the southern city of Aden to engage with local political leaders to "resolve the problem" of Monday's killing of a leader in the southern secessionist movement, Saba reported.
Security forces shot Khalid al-Junaidi dead after ordering him out of his car in Aden's Crater district, according to Amnesty International, which called on authorities to launch an investigation.
The killing led activists to step up a civil disobedience campaign, holding demonstrations and a one-day general strike in several southern provinces, according to reports in the Yemeni media.
The secessionist movement seeks independence for the former Marxist republic of South Yemen, which merged with the more populous and conservative north in 1990.