Seven killed in Yemen blasts

A man lobbed a grenade in a busy market in Yemen's second city Taez, killing at least six people, officials said, while a blast in the capital Sanaa claimed one more life.

A man lobbed a grenade in a busy market on Friday in Yemen's second city Taez, killing at least six people, officials said, while a blast in the capital Sanaa claimed one more life.

Yemenis march against the regime in the city of Taez in 2011. A blast ripped through a market in the city, killing at least six people, witnesses and a doctor said.

Ten others were injured in the attack in Taez, staged when the market re-opened in the evening after the daily fast for the Muslim month of Ramadan, an official in the Taez governor's office said.

"A man on a motorbike threw a grenade, killing six people and injuring 10 others," he said, adding that the motive behind the attack was not yet clear.

Another person was killed and one more was injured in a blast in a southern neighbourhood of Sanaa when an explosive device placed near an Internet cafe went off, locals and a doctor said.

The defence ministry said the explosion occurred near a khat market. Khat is a plant chewed for its stimulant qualities and is banned from import to the United States and many European countries, though it is still legal in Britain.

Taez was a protest hotbed last year during months of unrest against the rule of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in February after 33 years in power.