A soldier in Yemen blew himself up Monday at a military parade practice near Sanaa's presidential palace. The blast killed nearly 100 people and wounded at least 200 others.

The attack appeared to be a failed attempt to assassinate Minister of Defense Maj. Gen. Mohammed Nasser Ahmed. Neither he nor his chief of staff was injured.

"This is a real massacre," Ahmed Sobhi, one of the soldiers who witnessed the explosion, said. "There are piles of torn body parts, limbs, and heads. This is unbelievable. I am still shaking. The place turned into hell. I thought this only happens in movies."
  
No one claimed responsibility, but the United States-backed Yemeni army has been fighting al Qaeda forces in southern Yemen.
  
Al Qaeda moved its center of operations there from Afghanistan, and the U.S. military considers it to be a major threat to the region.