SANAA: Car bombs killed or injured at least 50 people near mosques and the headquarters of Yemen’s dominant Houthi group in Sanaa on Wednesday, in coordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State group (IS).

The four blasts rocked the capital as Saudi-led forces conducted more air strikes against Houthi military bases across Yemen and delegates attending peace talks in Switzerland reported no progress on the second day of a UN-sponsored push for a Ramazan truce.

A security official said at least 50 people were killed or wounded in the attacks on the Hashush mosque, the Kibsi mosque, the al-Qubah al-Khadra mosque and the political bureau of the Ansarullah movement of the Houthis.

“The explosion was so loud I thought it was caused by an air strike,” said a man in his 70s named Ali, who had just left a mosque when a bomb went off.

“I returned and found cars burning, people screaming and wounded people all over.” The IS said in a statement posted online it carried out the attacks.

The attack is the most serious of its kind in Yemen since suicide bombers killed at least 137 worshippers and wounded hundreds during Friday prayers at two mosques in Sanaa on March 20, in attacks also claimed by IS.

The Houthi-controlled state news agency quoted an official blaming IS for the latest bombings. Supporters of Islamic State exchanged celebratory messages on social media.

Islamic State has recently stepped up its operations in Yemen, where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also Sunni Islamist, had long dominated the militant scene.

AQAP recently suffered a serious blow when a US drone strike killed its leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

AQAP militants shot and killed two Saudis in public in the city of Mukalla on Wednesday, after accusing them of placing tracking devices that helped guide the attack that killed Wuhayshi, residents said.

Earlier on Wednesday Houthi fighters in central Yemen blew up the home of a senior politician, Abdel-Aziz Jubari, while he was attending the Geneva talks as a member of the exiled government’s delegation.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla told Reuters in Geneva the peace talks had “made no progress”.

Residents of Dhamar city said the Houthis, who had taken over Jubari’s house in April, dynamited the building early in the morning. Yemeni websites published pictures of its collapsed roof on a pile of rubble.

Jubari, who is deputy head of the delegation sent to Geneva by ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said he was shocked when he heard the news.

“This is regrettable that people’s manners and behaviours can reach this point,” Jubari said in Geneva.

“Of course my house is not the only house in Yemen ... A lot of people’s homes and properties have been targeted in an unbelievable way.” Abdulla, the head of the government delegation, said: “It is in this spirit of revenge that they are dealing with all the Yemeni people and we cannot remain silent on this.” Houthi officials were not immediately available to comment.

The Houthis seized Sanaa in September and pressed into the country’s centre and south, forcing Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh.

They say they are campaigning against corruption and years of political marginalisation.

A coalition of Arab states headed by Saudi Arabia has been bombing the Houthis and their Yemeni army allies since March 26.

Their aim is to restore Hadi to power and head off what they see as Shi’ite Iran’s expansion in the region. The Houthis deny receiving military backing from Iran.

More than 2,600 civilians and combatants have been killed since March and a humanitarian crisis is looming as supplies of food, medicine and other goods run short.

The latest air raids by the Saudi-led alliance focused on army bases in Sanaa and Houthi targets in Yemen’s central desert and the mountainous province of Mahweet.

In Geneva, the UN’s special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has been conducting shuttle diplomacy between the two sides.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2015

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