IS car bomb attack kills 28 in Yemen

Sanaa

An attack on Huthi rebel leaders in Yemen's capital claimed by the Islamic State group has killed at least 28 people, medics said today, in the latest anti-Shiite assault by the Sunni extremists.

Yemen was previously the preserve of IS's jihadist rival Al-Qaeda, which controls swathes of the south and east, but since March the group has claimed a string of high-profile attacks.

The car bomb late Monday targeted two brothers, both rebel chiefs, during a gathering to mourn the death of a relative, a security source said.

Eight women were among the dead.

IS said online it had organised the attack on a "Shiite nest". 

The group considers Shiites heretics and has repeatedly targeted them, not only in Yemen but across the region.

Just Friday, a Saudi IS suicide bomber killed 26 people and wounded 227 in a Shiite mosque in Kuwait.

In Yemen, IS claimed a car bombing that killed two people outside a Shiite mosque in Sanaa on June 20 and a series of attacks in the capital four days earlier that killed 31.

IS, which yesterday marked the first anniversary of its declaration of a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria, launched its Yemen campaign in March with a series of bombings of Shiite mosques that killed 142 people.