ISIL attack on Houthi leaders kills 28, as Al Qaeda prisoners in Taiz escape

The car bomb targeted Houthi rebel chief brothers Faycal and Hamid Jayache during a gathering to mourn the death of a family member.

Yemenis inspect the scene of a car bomb targeting a group of mourners loyal to Houthi rebels in Sanaa, The attack, which killed 28, was claimed by ISIL. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

Sanaa // ISIL has claimed an attack on two Houthi rebel leaders in Sanaa that killed at least 28 people, including eight women.

It comes amid reports that around 1,200 prisoners escaped during clashes at a jail in central Yemen on Tuesday, among them Al Qaeda suspects.

“Groups of Al Qaeda supporters ... attacked the central prison in the city of Taiz and more than 1,200 of the dangerous prisoners escaped,” state news agency Saba reported.

A local official confirmed that some of the escapees were “suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda” but said they escaped amid heavy clashes between warring militias in the city.

The car bomb in Sanaa on Monday targeted two brothers, both Houthi rebel chiefs, during a gathering to mourn the death of a family member, a security source said.

Houthi rebels closed down the surrounding area in the centre of the city after Monday night’s attack, only allowing through emergency services to help evacuate the victims, witnesses said.

The explosion blew a crater in the road, took chunks out of nearby walls and left debris strewn across the street.

In a statement posted online, ISIL said it had organised the attack on what it called a “Shiite nest” in the Yemeni capital.

The extremist group also claimed a car bombing on June 20 against a Shiite mosque in Sanaa that killed two and wounded 16 and another series of attacks in the Yemeni capital four days earlier that killed 31.

The attacks have overshadowed the operations of rival Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which overran Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province in southeast Yemen, in March.

Washington still regards Aqap as the network’s most dangerous branch and has kept up a drone war against its leaders inside Yemen.

But analysts say ISIL is now clearly in the ascendant.

ISIL is “in the process of supplanting Aqap, which is becoming just one of a number of forces in the Sunni tribal camp in southern Yemen”, said Mathieu Guidere, Islamic studies professor at France’s University of Toulouse.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized vast swathes of Yemen since launching an offensive in July 2014, forcing president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia.

Neither peace talks in Geneva nor a Saudi-led air campaign begun in March have driven them from power and they remain locked in battle with pro-government fighters, Sunni tribesmen and southern separatists.

*Agence France-Presse and Reuters