Two suicide bombers targeted a Shiite rebel checkpoint and a home in Radda, al Bayda Province, Yemen on Tuesday, leaving at least 26 dead.
A school bus full of female primary school children was passing the checkpoint at the time of the first suicide bombing, killing at least 16 students.
Witnesses say a truck arrived at the checkpoint loaded with potatoes to disguise the explosives underneath. After the detonation, the streets were littered with body parts and bags of potatoes, they told the Associated Press. Dozens of bodies were dumped into pickup trucks while emergency workers arrived in ambulances to tend to the wounded.
The second attack occurred at the home of Shiite rebel leader Abdullah Idris when a suicide bomber drove a car into the home and detonated explosives. At least 26 people were killed between the two attacks.
The rebels blamed al-Qaeda for the bombings, and called the assaults the "ugliest crime against childhood." The attack was the second on Idris' home since October.
The Defense Ministry also held al-Qaeda responsible for the attacks, and called the bombings a "cowardly terrorist attack on the home of a citizen and a school bus," according to The Guardian.
Also on Tuesday, Taliban members attacked a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, leaving at least 132 students and 10 staff members dead.
Reports say that about 500 students and teachers were inside the Army Public School when the terrorists descended on the campus.
"They didn't take any hostages initially and started firing in the hall," Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said in a press conference.
"The gunmen entered class by class and shot some kids one by one," a student told reporters. The children were in grades one through 10.
Another military official further described the barbarism that took place inside the school. "They burnt a teacher in front of the students in a classroom," the source told NBC News. "They literally set the teacher on fire with gasoline and made the kids watch."
