By Maarib al-Ward

SANAA

 A major blast on Wednesday rocked the vicinity of Sanaa International Airport, eyewitnesses said.

The blast was followed by clashes apparently between policemen and unknown militants, the eyewitnesses added.

No word is yet available on casualties.

Accounts about the source of the explosion, meanwhile, varied.

Some witnesses said that the blast took place outside a restaurant near the main gate of the airport.

Other witnesses, however, said that some unknown militants had attacked with a rocket the airport's control tower, noting that the rocket had failed to hit the tower.

Eyewitnesses, meanwhile, said the clashes that followed the explosion had most likely taken place between policemen and unknown militants.

On Monday, a Yemeni official said that security men at the airport had arrested two men on suspicions of hiding an explosive charge.

Airport manager Khaled al-Shayef said the two men were on a taxi when they entered the parking lot of the airport where policemen had noticed the presence of the suspected explosive charge in the car trunk.

Yemen has been in turmoil since an uprising in 2011 ousted long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh a year later.

In recent months, the poor Arab country's toughest challenge came from its Shiite Houthis who in September controlled the capital Sanaa and now move on to extend their control to other areas.

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