AFP/Sanaa

A car bomb near a mosque in Yemen’s capital yesterday killed two people, as Saudi-led warplanes bombarded second city Aden, after peace talks in Geneva ended without agreement.
The explosion in Sanaa, controlled by Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels, went off outside the Kobbat al-Mehdi mosque as Shia Muslims emerged from midday prayers, witnesses and security sources said.
As well as the two dead, another 16 people were wounded, medical officials said.
The blast damaged the entrance of the mosque and shattered the windows of a nearby house.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, SITE Intelligence Group reported, the latest in a series that has targeted Sanaa, which the Houthi rebels seized in September.
Since then they have expanded their control to other parts of Sunni-majority Yemen, including Aden in the south, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday, at least 31 people were killed and dozens wounded in five simultaneous bombings, also claimed by the radical group, at Shia mosques and offices in Sanaa.
Yesterday bomb attack came hours after Saudi-led warplanes launched 15 strikes against Houthi targets in the port city of Aden.
A pro-government military source said the dawn strikes pounded the northern, eastern and western approaches to Aden, to isolate the Houthis and support forces loyal to Hadi.
“The objective is to close the noose around the Houthi rebels in Aden and assist the Popular Resistance Committees,” said the source.
Anti-rebel forces comprising pro-government fighters, Sunni tribes, and southern separatists are referred to as Popular Resistance Committees.
They have been locked in fierce fighting against the Houthis in Aden, which has been devastated by Saudi-led strikes launched in March in support of Hadi.
Yesterday the rebels shelled several neighbourhoods of Aden, killing four people and wounding several others, the military source said, a toll confirmed by hospital officials.
The violence came after UN’s special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced on Friday in Geneva that talks between the warring sides ended without agreement.
“I won’t beat around the bush. There was no kind of agreement reached,” the Mauritanian diplomat told reporters.
Yemen’s rivals blamed each other for the deadlock.
“I am disappointed. We did everything to make the talks a success but there were too many obstacles, especially the demand for a withdrawal,” rebel delegation head Hamza al-Houthi said.
Yemen’s exiled foreign minister blamed the lack of progress on the rebel delegation.
“We really came here with a big hope... but unfortunately the Houthi delegation did not allow us really to reach real progress as we expected,” said Riad Yassin.
The government is demanding in line with a UN Security Council resolution that the rebels withdraw from the territory they control, but the Houthis have called for an unconditional halt to the air strikes before they consider a pause in fighting.
The rebels are backed by fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to step down after a year of bloody protests calling for an end to his three decades of iron-fisted rule.