Journalist among four killed in Yemen blast

A bomb explosion in a mainly Shiite
Yemeni city on Sunday killed at
least four people including a
reporter and wounded 25 others,
officials said.
The bombing targeted a gathering
of Shiite Huthi militiamen, also
known as Ansarullah, in Dhamar
which the group controls, a security
official said.
Saba, the official news agency,
reported that three members of
the “popular committees”, a local
police force created by the Huthi
militia, and a reporter lost their
lives in the blast.
The journalist was identified as
Khaled al-Washli, who worked for
the Huthi-owned Al-Masirah
television channel.
Al-Masirah confirmed Washli’s
death on its Facebook page.
Saba said that members of the
popular committees discovered the
bomb at one of their buildings in
Dhamar but it exploded as they
tried to defuse it.
However, a security official in
Dhamar told AFP the device had
been planted in a vehicle, and gave
a toll of six dead and 27 wounded.
This account could not immediately
be confirmed from other sources.
The Huthis overran the Yemeni
capital unopposed last September
and have since advanced across
other parts of the country.
They easily took over Dhamar,
south of Sanaa, where they have
the support of the city’s mostly
Shiite population, but have met
fierce resistance elsewhere from
Al-Qaeda and Sunni tribal fighters.
On Thursday, almost 50 people
were killed when a suicide bomber
targeted a religious celebration by
Huthi supporters in the mainly
Sunni city of Ibb.