Suicide Bomber Strikes Houthi Ceremony

(Bloomberg) -- Fifteen people were killed in Yemen in a suicide car bombing that targeted a Shiite Muslim rebel group, the Houthis, in a northern province in the Arabian Peninsula country.

A car packed with explosives detonated alongside a crowd of Houthis during a religious ceremony in al-Jawf, Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesman for the group, said in an a phone interview today. The group is investigating the attack, he said.

The Houthis, so-called because of the family name of their leaders, began fighting the government in the northern province of Saada in 2004. The authorities accuse them of seeking to re- install the rule of Zaidi Shiite religious leaders that ended in 1962.

The Houthis claim discrimination by Yemen’s majority Sunni Muslims. Several cease-fires have collapsed because of mistrust.

An ominous event regardless of the outcome. Yemeni officials have already incriminated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), although the Saleh government has exploited AQAP in its fight against the southern secessionists.