Two killed in north Yemen explosion

An explosion near a government administration complex held by Zaidi Shiite rebels in northern Yemen has killed two people, the rebels said yesterday.

“A bomb-laden car exploded” near a medical centre in the city of Al-Matamma in Al-Jawf province, northeast of capital Sanaa, killing two and wounding another, the rebels said in a statement of the late Sunday attack.

The rebels accused US intelligence agents of planning the “criminal attack aimed against the Yemeni revolt”, adding the blast intended to “provoke sectarian divisions between Yemenis.”

They said the attack was aimed to “help maintain the unjust regime” of President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has been facing six months of protests.

“This is clearly a US intelligence-style criminal act” the rebels said.

The blast occurred when leaders of the Shiite rebellion were meeting in the government administration complex located near the medical centre at Al-Matamma, witnesses said.

The complex erupted in flames and the explosion was heard in several neighbouring villages, witnesses and tribal sources added.

The blast came two days after the signing of a truce by the Shiite rebels and the Islamist Al-Islah party, in a bid to stop the fighting which since March has flared intermittently in the area near the border with Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s mountainous northern region is a stronghold of the Zaidis, also known as Huthis, who from 2004 fought six wars with central government forces before signing a truce in February 2010. The rebellion has claimed thousands of lives.