A uniformed man blew himself up in the midst of a military parade rehearsal attended by senior officials in the Yemeni capital yesterday, killing more than 90 people and wounding 222, a police source said.
Yemen’s defense minister and chief of staff were present at the event, but were not hurt in the blast, a military source said.
The attack coincided with a US-backed Yemeni army offensive against al-Qaeda-linked militants in the south of the country, where they control several towns. Troops closed in on one of their strongholds on Sunday in heavy fighting.
Militants have exploited political instability in Yemen to gain a foothold in a country paralyzed for most of last year by protests that eventually unseated Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemen is home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and is viewed by the US as a major threat to its own security. A US military instructor was reportedly wounded in an ambush on a US training team on Sunday.
Blood and body parts were scattered across the 10-lane road where the rehearsal was being held yesterday morning. The area was cordoned off with yellow tape and a forensic team was examining the site.
“We were in a parade, suddenly there was a huge explosion. Dozens of our men were killed. We tried to help them,” said a man who identified himself as Colonel Amin al-Alghabati, his hands and uniform flecked with blood.
“The suicide bomber was dressed in a military uniform. He had a belt of explosives underneath,” he said.
A witness said the wounded were being ferried to hospital in taxis.
The impoverished state has seen a spate of deadly attacks since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi replaced Saleh in February saying he would extinguish an Islamist insurgency, which until now has been concentrated in the south.
The Yemeni army earlier this month launched an offensive in the southern governorate of Abyan to regain control of territory and towns seized by militants calling themselves Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law).
The parade was scheduled for today to mark Yemen’s national day, which commemorates the unification of north and south Yemen, previously separate states, and Hadi was due to attend.
“Yemenis must stand together in the face of this deadly terrorist threat,” Brigadier Karim Nahil said. “We will celebrate our unity tomorrow with the blood of our martyrs on our hands and faces.”
This story has been updated since first published.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS