Yemen worshipers were cursing Jews when mosque blown up

Shiite congregants in Sana’a called for death of Israel and the US; then an IS suicide bomber killed scores

People stand amid bodies covered with blankets in a mosque after a suicide attack during the noon prayer in Sana'a, Yemen, on March 20, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Hani Mohammed)
People stand amid bodies covered with blankets in a mosque after a suicide attack during the noon prayer in Sana'a, Yemen, on March 20, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Hani Mohammed)

A video recording of a deadly terrorist attack at a Shiite mosque in Yemen on Friday revealed that worshipers were chanting a slew of hateful slogans just as a suicide bomber detonated himself, killing scores of people.

The bombing, one of three committed in a pair of mosques, was carried out by the Islamic State during weekly prayers. At least 142 people were killed and 351 were wounded in the attacks, carried out in the Shiite rebel-controlled capital city of Sana’a.

The amateur video, hosted and translated by the Arabic media watchdog MEMRI, shows a preacher conducting a sermon at the Houthi al-Hashoosh Mosque, leading the crowd in an impassioned cry against Israel, the United States and Jews.

“Our belief in Allah will increase after today. We will triumph over their deceit and their arrogance. Allah is with us,” the preacher said.

“Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse upon the Jews. Victory to Islam. Allahu Akbar,” the worshipers recited en masse. Then a terrorist roaming among the mosque’s patrons detonated himself, causing a scene of mass panic.

The Shiite TV network aired footage from inside the al-Hashoosh Mosque, where screaming volunteers were using bloodied blankets to carry away victims. One of the dead was a small child. Corpses were lined up on the mosque floor and carried away in pick-up trucks.

A report on the rebel-owned al-Masirah TV said that hospitals were urging citizens to donate blood.

The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, swept down from their northern strongholds and seized the capital last September. Allied with ousted former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, they now control at least nine of Yemen’s 21 provinces. Earlier this year they put Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the western-backed president, under house arrest. Hadi has since fled to the southern city of Aden, where he established a temporary capital and maintains he is still the legitimate president.

The Sunni Islamic State group is currently fighting against the government forces in Iraq and Syria and Shiite militia groups supporting them, committing atrocities against them and other minority groups throughout the Middle East.

In an online statement, the previously unknown Sana’a branch of the jihadist group warned that the bombings were “just the tip of the iceberg.”

AP and AFP contributed to this report.

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