Five bombs explode in Yemeni capital, killing one

[December 23, 2014]  ADEN (Reuters) - Five bombs exploded on Tuesday in Sanaa's old quarter, where many supporters of the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement live, killing a member of the group and wounding another person, a senior security official said.

One of the bombs was placed near the home of Ismail al-Wazir, a professor at Sanaa University, state news agency Saba quoted the director general of the Sanaa police, Brigadier General Abdelrazzaq al-Mo'ayad, as saying.

Wazir, who is close to the Houthi group, escaped an assassination attempt in April when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle, killing two of his security guards.

No one has claimed responsibility for the April attack or Tuesday's bombings, but the Houthis have been fighting the Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and allied tribesmen since its gunmen captured Sanaa in September and forced the resignation of a government they had long accused of corruption.

The blasts occurred early in the morning when only a few people were on the streets, witnesses said. One said he saw a man on a motorbike place the bomb outside his house and it exploded almost immediately.

Another bomb exploded when a member of the Popular Committees, a local force set up by the Houthis after they captured Sanaa, was trying to dismantle it, police said.

Several houses and some cars were damaged from the explosions.

Yemen has been in turmoil since mass protests in 2011 forced long-ruling president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Tensions increased after the Houthi takeover of Sanaa in September.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mokhashaf in Aden and Khaled Abdallah in Sanaa, writing by Sami Aboudim; Editing by William Maclean; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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