Sanaa: Eighteen people, mostly soldiers, were killed in Yemen today when a blast blamed by authorities on Shiite insurgents exploded at the entrance to a mosque in the rebels stronghold.

A booby-trapped motorcycle exploded as hundreds of Muslim faithful were leaving the Bin Salman mosque in the northwestern town of Saada after Friday prayers, according to military sources at the site.

Forty-five people were wounded.

The attack on the mosque, located near an army barracks, raised fears of an escalation in violence between the government and the Shiite rebels whose insurgency in the mountainous province of Saada has claimed thousands of lives since 2004.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a local official told AFP the attack bears the hallmarks of the Huthis, as the rebels are known.

"Terrorist criminal followers of the terrorist Abdul Malak al-Huthi are behind this ugly crime," an interior ministry official told the Saba state news agency, referring to the rebels field commander.

But Huthi, in a statement received by AFP, condemned the "tragic" attack and called for "searching for the truth objectively" in order to identify the perpetrators.

The rebel chief also accused unnamed parties of seeking to thwart peace efforts in Saada and urged natives of the province to close ranks.

Military sources said the dead were mostly soldiers, but they also included beggars women and children who had been waiting outside the mosque. Most of the injured were soldiers.

Source : PTI