Dozens killed in suicide attack at Yemen wake.

14:13 Unknown

Zinjibar, in the south Yemen province of Abyan, hundreds were killed by suspected Al Qeada suicide bomber. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi/Reuters

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a wake in southern Yemen on Saturday night, killing more than 45 people and wounding at least 41, the interior ministry said.
While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the town of Jaar in Abyan province, suspicion fell on al Qaeda which vowed to retaliate against tribesmen who fought alongside the government to uproot it from the region.

The bomber appeared to have been targeting the head of a group of tribal fighters that sided with the Yemeni army during an offensive that drove al-Qaida-linked militants from their strongholds in the southern province of Abyan.

"This is a cowardly, criminal, terrorist attack," said Abyan governor Jamal al-Aqel, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the bomber's identity.

The attack highlighted the enduring threat of Islamist militancy in Yemen and may alarm the United States and Saudi Arabia, which increasingly view the impoverished state as a frontline in their war on al-Qaida and its affiliates.

The leader of a committee of local residents fighting al-Qaida, Abdul Latif Al Sayed, was injured and taken to hospital, local officials said. Two of his brothers were also killed in the attack.

Further east in the province of Hadramout, a US drone fired on a vehicle ferrying suspected militants, killing its three passengers, a local official said.

Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) seized several towns in Abyan last year, establishing a foothold there while then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh was grappling with mass protests that eventually toppled him.

The United States supported the Yemeni military campaign through which the army regained control of territory it had lost, but residents and analysts say the militants are simply lying low and waiting for a chance to regroup.

"A number of individuals from these gangs took refuge in the mountains next to the north of Jaar after the big defeat they were dealt by the army and Popular Committees," said state news agency Saba. "Today they resume their cowardly suicide operations".

Despite losing their territorial base, militants have shown they still pose a considerable threat, assassinating a top southern military commander, and killing four policemen in an attack on a Jaar police station just last week.

Kidnappings and violence in Yemen have become increasingly common in recent years, especially since last year's uprising that eventually ended President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule in February.
Most of the violence have been blamed on affiliates of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, including the deadliest attack ever on Yemeni troops in May, when a massive suicide bombing killed more than 100 soldiers and injured 220 others.