Yemen mosque attacks kill 142
Suicide bombers target two mosques attended by Shiite worshippers
Sanaa, March 20: Suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 142 people on Friday at mosques in the Yemeni capital, in an attack targeting Shiite worshippers including Huthi militiamen.
The multiple blasts were among the deadliest attacks yet in Yemen, which is grappling with growing instability and divisions along sectarian lines.
They came a day after clashes between forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and those allied with the Huthi Shiite militia in the southern city of Aden, where the leader fled last month.
The suicide bombers targeted two mosques attended by Huthis, who have seized the capital Sanaa. One struck inside Badr mosque in southern Sanaa while another targeted wor- shippers as they fled outside, witnesses said.
A third suicide bomber targeted Al-Hashush mosque in northern Sanaa. Nashwan al- Atab, a member of the health ministry’s operations committee, said that 142 people were killed and at least 351 were wounded.
The Huthi militia’s AlMassira television said hospitals in the capital had made urgent appeals for blood donations. The imam of the Badr mosque was among the dead. Footage aired by Al-Massira showed bodies lying in pools of blood outside the mosques, as worshippers rushed the wounded to hospitals in pickup trucks. Another suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in the northern Huthi stronghold of Saada, a source close to the militia said. Only the assailant was killed in that explosion, and tight security at the mosque prevented the bomber from going inside, the source added.
— AFP