YEMEN: Bomb attack kills and wounds scores

Police say they've already rounded up suspects in a devastating bomb blast at a mosque in northern Yemen today that killed at least eight people and injured 38, according to Yemen's official news agency.

The suspected motorcycle bomb targeted worshipers leaving the Bin Salman mosque. The official news agency took pains to emphasize that political  and tribal organizations condemned the terrorist attack.

An investigation is underway, but officials are already blaming the attack on Shiite Muslim rebels loyal to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who has been leading an insurgency against the government. 

A source told the news agency that Houthi and his followers "rejected all religious and moral values, imbibed criminality and terrorism and have no respect for sacred shrines."

Houthi rejected the allegation in an interview with Al Jazeera television:

We criticise and condemn this regrettable incident. We deny completely any role in this incident. It is not part of our ethics to target any mosque or any worshipers at all.

Poor, populous Yemen has been bedeviled by a years-long sectarian conflict as well as Al Qaeda attacks.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Yemeni soldiers patrol outside a government building in Saada, Yemen. AP Photo/Mohammed Al-Qadhi