yemen Bombings at 2 mosques kill 137

Associated Press

ADEN, Yemen

Suicide bombers attacked a pair of mosques Friday in the Yemeni capital, unleashing monstrous blasts that ripped through worshippers and killed 137 people in the deadliest assault yet targeting Shiite rebels who have taken over large parts of the rapidly fragmenting nation. At least 13 children were among the dead.

A purported affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombings, which also wounded 357 people — raising the alarming possibility the extremist group has expanded its presence to Yemen after already setting up a branch in Libya. Earlier this week, the group claimed responsibility for a bloody attack on Western tourists in Tunisia that authorities said was carried out by militants trained in Libya.

If the claim is true — and the U.S. expressed skepticism — Friday’s attacks would be the first by the Islamic State group in Yemen, adding a frightening new layer to the country’s turmoil.

Shiite rebels known as Houthis have taken over the capital, Sanaa, and nine of the country’s 21 provinces over the past six months, raising fears of a civil war tinged with sectarianism. The government of the internationally backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has fled to the southern port city of Aden.

Yemen already is home to the most-powerful branch of the al-Qaida network, which has been battling the Houthis for months. On Friday, al-Qaida militants seized control of a southern provincial capital, al-Houta, in the group’s most dramatic grab of territory in years. However, it denied carrying out the mosque bombings, citing instructions from the terror network’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, not to strike mosques or markets.

Friday’s blasts left scenes of bloody devastation in the Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques, located across town from each other in Sanaa. Both mosques are controlled by the Shiite Houthis, but they also are frequented by Sunni worshippers.

Images from the scene showed a number of children among the dead. In footage from the al-Hashoosh mosque, screaming volunteers were seen using bloodied blankets to carry away victims as a small child lay among the dead on the mosque floor.

“Blood was running like a river,” said one survivor, Mohammed al-Ansi, who said he was thrown 6 feet by one of the blasts at the Hashoosh mosque, where the floor was strewn with body parts.

The mosques were targeted by two suicide bombers each during midday prayers, when large crowds turn out to attend weekly sermons. The state news agency SABA put the toll at 137 dead and 357 wounded. Among the dead were 13 children, according to the Interior Ministry. A prominent Shiite cleric, al-Murtada al-Mansouri, and two senior Houthi leaders also were killed, the rebel-owned Al-Masirah TV channel said.

It also reported that a fifth suicide-bomb attack on another mosque was foiled in the northern city of Saada — a Houthi stronghold.

In the Badr mosque, the first bomber was caught by guards searching worshippers at the gate, where he managed to detonate his device. In the ensuing panic, a second bomber entered the mosque and blew himself up amid the crowd, according to the official news agency SABA.

In its claim of responsibility, a purported Islamic State affiliate calling itself “Sanaa Province” warned of an “upcoming flood” of attacks targeting the Houthi rebels. The claim could not be independently confirmed and did not give concrete proof of IS involvement.

The statement was posted on the same Web bulletin board where the Islamic State claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s deadly attack on a museum in Tunisia.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. had seen no indications of an operational link between the Islamic State group and Friday’s attacks. He said the U.S. was investigating to see whether the IS branch in Yemen has the command-and-control structure in place to substantiate its claim of responsibility.