A suicide bomber struck at a wake in Yemen's southern city of Jaar overnight, killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens more, the defence ministry said, in the deadliest attack since the army declared victory over Islamist militants in June.
The bomber appeared to
have been targeting the head of a group of tribal fighters that sided
with the Yemeni army during an offensive that drove al Qaeda-linked
militants from their strongholds in the southern province of Abyan.
"This
is a cowardly, criminal, terrorist attack," said Abyan governor Jamal
al-Aqel, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the
bomber's identity.
The attack highlighted the enduring threat of
Islamist militancy in Yemen and may alarm the United States and Saudi
Arabia, which increasingly view the impoverished state as a front line
in their war on al Qaeda and its affiliates.
A local official said
charred bodies were strewn around the site of the blast in which Abdul
Latif Al Sayed, the leader of tribal fighting units known as Popular
Committees, who has previously survived assassination attempts.
Two of his brothers were killed in the explosion.
Further
east in the province of Hadramout, a US drone fired on a vehicle
ferrying suspected militants, killing its three passengers, a local
official said.
Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) seized
several towns in Abyan last year, establishing a foothold there while
then president Ali Abdullah Saleh was grappling with mass protests that
eventually toppled him.
The United States supported the Yemeni
military campaign through which the army regained control of territory
it had lost, but residents and analysts say the militants are simply
lying low and waiting for a chance to regroup.
"A number of
individuals from these gangs took refuge in the mountains next to the
north of Jaar after the big defeat they were dealt by the army and
Popular Committees," said state news agency Saba.
"Today they resume their cowardly suicide operations".
Despite
losing their territorial base, militants have shown they still pose a
considerable threat, assassinating a top southern military commander,
and killing four policemen in an attack on Jaar police station just last
week.
Reuters