[AnNahar] A jacket wallah dressed kaboom!at a celebration by Shiite militia supporters, medical and security sources said.
Dozens of people were also maimed in the attack in the mainly Sunni but Huthi militia-held city of Ibb, the medics said, warning that the corpse count was likely to rise.
Yemen has been dogged by instability since an Arab Spring-inspired uprising forced longtime strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
from power in 2012, with Shiite Houthis and al-Qaeda seeking to fill the power vacuum.
Among those maimed in Wednesday's attack was Ibb governor Yahya al-Aryani, who was attending the Huthis' commemoration of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, a medic said.
A security source told AFP that the bomber had been wearing a woman's black abaya and veil when he detonated his suicide belt.
Another bomb was discovered at the entrance to the event's venue, the source added.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
, the Yemen branch of the jihadist organization, has pledged to fight the Huthis, who overran the capital Sanaa unopposed in September and have since advanced into other, mainly Sunni districts, including Ibb.
AQAP military chief Qassem al-Rimi vowed in November to carry out fierce attacks against the Shiite militia, and several deadly bombings targeting Huthis have been claimed by the jihadist group.
Al-Qaeda has also carried out a spate of attacks against the security forces from its strongholds in the south and east in recent weeks.
In the southern province of Shabwa on Wednesday, unidentified gunnies killed police officer Colonel Mohammed al-Nessi near the historic provincial capital Ataq before fleeing, a police source told AFP.
There was no immediate claim for the shooting but last weekend AQAP claimed an attempt to assassinate a top general in an ambush that killed two soldiers and maimed 11.
In a second incident, AQAP said its gunnies opened fire on an army colonel in central Baida city, abruptly ejecting him from the gene pool.
And on Tuesday unidentified gunnies on a cycle of violence shot and killed an army officer in the southern port city of Aden.
AQAP is considered by the United States to be the global jihadist network's most dangerous branch and its attacks on security forces have challenged Yemen's longtime role as an effective ally in Washington's fight against murderous Moslems.
Its proximity to oil-rich Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and key shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden have also raised fears that it could become a failed state similar to Somalia.
The US slapped sanctions on former president Saleh in November for allegedly supporting the Huthi advance.
It also blacklisted two Shiite rebel commanders, Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim and Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi, "for engaging in acts that directly or indirectly threaten the peace, security, or stability of Yemen".