A car bomb exploded overnight in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, killing at least 28 people, including eight women, medics said on Tuesday.
The attack targeted Houthi leaders Faycal and Hamid Jayache during a gathering to mourn the death of a family member, a security source said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack that also injured 20 others, Middle East Eye reported.
Houthis closed down the surrounding area in the center of the city after the attack, only allowing through emergency services to help evacuate the victims, witnesses said.
"At approximately 11:30 (local time) we heard a loud explosion, it was a truly powerful explosion. We came out to see what happened and the homes were severely damaged," witness Yehia Ali told Reuters.
"It was an explosive placed inside a car … The car had been parked here since about eight in the evening and no one paid attention to it."
The extremist group has frequently targeted Shias in attacks in several countries. The last of these, a suicide bombing by a Saudi national on Friday in a Shia mosque in Kuwait, killed 27 people and wounded 227.
Scud Attack
Yemeni forces on Tuesday launched a Scud missile at a missile base in Saudi Arabia, Yemeni state news agency Saba reported.
"The rocket units in our heroic armed forces today launched a Scud missile at the Al-Sulayyil missile base in Riyadh Province ... It comes as a response to the crimes of the brutal Saudi aggression," Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman said.
Luqman said the attack hit the base, which is about 450 km south of the Saudi capital.
Despite months of airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab countries to restore Yemen's fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to power and repel Houthis, the Houthis have not lost ground on the battlefield and have stepped up their exchanges of artillery and rocket fire with Saudi forces along their border.
