Bomb kills three at Iran envoy’s home in Yemen

Agencies/SanaaA car bomb killed three people at the Iranian ambassador’s residence in Yemen yesterday, an attack claimed by Al Qaeda militants who oppose Iran and the Yemeni Shia rebels who control the capital Sanaa. Yesterday’s bombing, the second in Sanaa claimed by Al Qaeda in as many months, blew a large hole in the residence and sent rubble flying across the street of the well-guarded diplomatic quarter of the city. A Yemeni civilian and two soldiers were killed, a medical official said. Seventeen people, mostly employees at a nearby oil ministry building, were wounded. The ambassador had left his residence for the embassy 10 minutes earlier, security officials said. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility on its Twitter account. It said its fighters parked the car and left the scene, killing several Iranian employees and local guards. Security officials said it was a suicide attack and no Iranian staff were harmed. Iran backs the Houthi rebel movement that seized control of Sanaa in September and has since taken swathes of the country’s north and centre. AQAP, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Sanaa on October 9 that killed 47 people at a Houthi checkpoint, opposes the political ascendancy of the Houthis, who took over Sanaa after weeks of anti-government demonstrations. “Glass shattered on me from the force of the explosion,” Bashir al-Ossaimy, who works at a drug company opposite the residence, said. He had two bandages on his face, a swollen eye and a bloodstained jacket and shirt. Inside the embassy compound, an Iranian flag was draped over the rubble. Part of the perimeter wall had caved in and several Houthi militia officials were on the scene, as well as regular Yemeni security officials. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian urged Yemen to “quickly identify and punish the culprits behind the terrorist act”, according to the Irna news agency. Western and Gulf Arab countries, which have supported Yemen’s UN-backed political transition to democracy since 2012 after decades of autocracy, are worried that instability in Yemen could allow Al Qaeda to establish a stronghold. Iranian diplomats have been targeted in Yemen before. One diplomat is being held hostage by suspected Sunni militants and another was killed this year when he resisted a kidnapping attempt.    Violence has increased in Yemen since Houthi militia, also known as Ansarullah, swept into Sanaa in September. Their attempt to advance in regions south of Sanaa has been met by deadly resistance from Al Qaeda insurgents as well as tribes in central Yemen. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has decried “foreign plots” that he says are aimed at blocking progress in the impoverished country. In September Hadi urged Iran to be “reasonable” in dealing with Yemen. He said “internal and foreign forces” had allied to disrupt the political transition following a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh. In September Yemen reportedly freed two Iranians said to be members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards who were accused of having trained the Shia militia fighters. Al Qaeda’s leader in Yemen last month accused the Houthis of collaborating with the United States and Iran to try to “destroy” Sunni Muslims. Last month, Al Qaeda’s media branch claimed on Twitter that its fighters set off explosive devices at an entrance to the US embassy in Sanaa, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. There has been no confirmation by US authorities of such an attack. Washington regards AQAP as the most dangerous part of the militant network and has been waging a drone war against it for years, with the backing of first Saleh and more recently Hadi.