Qaida Attacks Shiite Rebels in Yemen

An al-Qaida group in Yemen has launched three attacks against Shiite rebels, vowing a tough fight against the insurgents who overran the capital last week, officials and witnesses said Monday.

Gunmen from Ansar al-Sharia opened fire on Sunday night at a vehicle in the central Baida province, killing all six rebels on board, witnesses said.

In Sanaa, two rebels were wounded when an explosive device went off, also on Sunday night, near a checkpoint, a security official said, accusing al-Qaida of being behind the attack.

The attacks followed a suicide bombing earlier in the day that targeted a small hospital used by Huthi rebels in Majzar, 80 kilometres east of Sanaa, tribal sources said.

Ansar al-Sharia, a group linked to al-Qaida, said on Twitter that it carried out the attack which had caused "dozens" of casualties.

The rebels swept down from their stronghold in the rugged northwestern mountains last month, demanding economic and political reforms.

On September 21, they seized key state installations without resistance, most of them in northern Sanaa, after clashes on the city's outskirts with Islamists killed more than 270 people.

Al-Qaida vowed on Wednesday to fight the rebels in defense of Sunni Muslims, three days after the insurgents overran Sanaa.

"We have unsheathed our sharp swords to defend you," Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement, warning the Shiite rebels of the "unbearable."

"Your heads will fly off," the statement threatened the rebels, charging that the Huthis' takeover of Sanaa was the "outcome of a Persian plot in Yemen."

Sanaa has repeatedly accused Shiite Iran of backing the rebels.