Dozens dead in holiday attack on Yemen mosque

A bomb attack targeting Shiite worshipers at a mosque in Yemen’s capital on Thursday killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more during prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, medics said.

Some news outlets reported up to 30 fatalities.

The blasts took place in the Balili mosque, a popular place of prayer for Houthi Shiites. Witnesses reported that after a first blast inside the mosque, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at the entrance as worshipers rushed outside.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Sanaa has been shaken by a string of bombings by the Islamic State jihadist group in recent months targeting Shiites.

In March, Islamic State militants carried out a series of similar attacks on Shiite mosques. The militant group denoted three bombs during weekday prayers in a pair of Sanaa mosques, killing 142 people and injuring 351.

The radical Sunni Muslim group considers Shiites to be heretics and has also claimed bombings of mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized several regions of Yemen including Sanaa which they overran a year ago.

Pro-government forces backed by Saudi-led air strikes have recently managed to wrest back some southern provinces, including Yemen’s second city of Aden.

The Islamic State group and the Yemen-based branch of its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda have exploited the turmoil to boost their activities in the impoverished country.

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