Suicide bombing kills seven in rebel-held Sanaa

People stand outside Al-Nour mosque in Sanaa on Wednesday.

AFP/Sanaa

A suicide bombing outside a mosque in Yemen's insurgent-held capital killed seven people, rebel media and witnesses said on Wednesday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but similar attacks have been carried out in the past by Islamic State, which has targeted Shia Houthi rebels who control Sanaa.

A man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up on Tuesday evening among a group of Houthi rebels guarding Al-Nour mosque, where both Sunnis and Shias pray in the northwest of the capital, witnesses said.

The attack left "seven citizens dead and wounded three others," the rebel-controlled sabanews.net website reported.

IS claimed responsibility for a similar bombing in Sanaa on September 24 that killed 25 people.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have held the capital for more than a year, after sweeping south from their northern highlands.

They entered the main southern city of Aden in mid-March before being pushed out four months later by loyalist fighters backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Highlighting the still-fragile security situation in Aden, IS claimed a series of suicide attacks on Tuesday that targeted the temporary government headquarters and Arab coalition troops in the port city.

Meanwhile, the party of Yemen's former president, a main player in the messy civil war, said in an emailed statement that it accepts a peace plan brokered by the UN in talks in Oman.

The General People's Congress (GPC) is the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, to whom many of the army units fighting alongside the northern Houthi militia against forces backed by Gulf states remain loyal.