Bomb attack kills politician in Yemen

MAARIB, Yemen

A politician from Yemen’s Islah Party was killed Thursday in a bomb attack in the southwestern province of Dhamar, a source said.

Abdel Razzaq al-Sarrari, who led the party in Al-Hada district, was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, said a party official who requested anonymity due to security concerns.

The device was planted at the door of a mosque where al-Sarrari was praying, and it went off as soon as he stepped out, he added.

This is the fifth party leader who has been assassinated in Dhamar [since the Houthi rebels came to power], the source said.

The Islah Party is the political front of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen.

Impoverished Yemen has remained in the throes of a bloody civil war since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including Sanaa, forcing President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and his government to flee the capital.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains.

*Reporting by Ali Oweida; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat