(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Fifteen children on a school bus were among at least 25 people killed in a suicide car bomb attack in central Yemen targeting a Shia militia leader yesterday, security sources said.
The children were killed when their school bus was caught up in the attack targeting the home of a leader of the Shia militia, known as Houthis, in the town of Rada, a security source said, blaming the attack on Al Qaeda militants.
A medical source confirmed that at least 25 people had died in the attack.
The defence ministry, on its website 26sep.net, condemned "this cowardly terrorist attack on the home of a citizen and a school bus", and also held Al Qaeda responsible.
Yemen has been rocked by instability since the Shiite fighters seized control of the capital Sana'a in September.
The Houthis have since been expanding their presence throughout the country but are facing fierce resistance from Sunni tribes and Al Qaeda's powerful Yemeni branch.
Yesterday's bomb attack was the second to target Huthis in Rada in little more than a month.
On November 12, a suicide bomber killed dozens of people gathered at the residence of a tribal chief in Rada.
The mixed Sunni-Shia town has seen heavy fighting since the Huthis took over parts of it in October, while Al Qaeda has set its sights on taking over Rada.
Houthi fighters prevented Yemen's new army chief from entering the defence ministry yesterday in a fresh show of power, a day after the Shiae faction accused the president of promoting corruption and demanded that it oversee state funds.
The escalation of tension between Houthis who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa and Western-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi raises the prospect of open confrontation after months in which Hadi sought to appease the group.
Houthi leader Abdel-Malek Al Houthi, in a speech to tribal leaders late on Monday at his northern Saada stronghold, said Hadi was a leading player in the country's corruption.
"During the popular revolution and the popular escalation, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was at the forefront of the forces of corruption," he said, referring to anti-government protests led by the group before it captured the capital.
"The Yemeni people ... will not be indifferent forever".
A senior aide at the president's office said the speech showed the Houthis, who have penetrated state institutions since seizing Sanaa in September, were plotting to bring down Hadi's administration and "complete their takeover of the state".
"We expect that the group has prepared another plot similar to the one it had when it captured Sanaa," the official, who asked not to be identified, said.
Houthi said committees he had set up to oversee ministries since Sanaa's fall had uncovered attempts by unidentified officials to conduct an inventory of state assets and to "divide billions" of rials among themselves in the process.
He also demanded that the 2015 state budget be subject to "close review" and that the government turn over control of state bodies to "rebels to monitor, follow up and ensure that people's funds are not wasted."
"Fighting corruption is a primary issue and there is no wavering from that," he said.
Western powers have been worried about the volatile situation in Yemen, which shares a long border with oil giant Saudi Arabia, and which is also fighting al Qaeda militants and separatists in the south.
"Abdel-Malek Al Houthi's speech points to an impending confrontation with the authorities. No one knows exactly where it may lead," said Ali Saif, a Yemeni analyst.
Yesterday, witnesses said Houthi fighters barred General Hussein Khairan, the army chief appointed by Hadi last week over Houthi objections, from entering his office.
They have friendly ties to Iran, the main Shia power in the region and foe of Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia. Their Shia Zaydi sect is related to Iran's dominant sect.
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