A suicide bomber driving a minibus full of explosives killed at least 15 people Wednesday morning near a police academy in the heart of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, security officials said.
The blast wounded at least 40 people, officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorised to brief journalists.
At the scene of the blast, the dead and wounded lay on a sidewalk against a wall. Water sprayed by firefighters to extinguish the blaze mixed with their pooled blood.
A police officer’s certificate sat in it, soaked crimson. A charred taxi cab smoked near what remained of the minibus, meters (yards) from a gate for the police academy.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yemen’s local al Qaeda branch, targeted in frequent US drone strikes in the country, has carried out similar attacks in the past.
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 Shia Iran, charges the rebels deny.
Al Qaeda militants have targeted the rebels in bombings in the past. An al Qaeda suicide bomber killed at least 24 people on Dec 31 in an attack on Houthis as they commemorated the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
