Scores killed in suicide bomb attacks on mosques during rush for prayers

Suicide bombers have attacked two mosques in the Yemeni capital during the rush for yesterday’s prayers, killing 90 people and injuring 280 others, sources have said. Three blasts were heard in two central mosques used by Houthi Shia Muslims, sources said. A report on the Houthi-funded Al-Masirah TV channelsaid the bombers attacked the Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques during midday prayers yesterday.

Two successive blasts targeted the Badr mosque killing the Imam of the mosque and leading Houthi religious leader, Al-Murtada bin Zayd al-Muhatwari, a medical source said.

Senior Houthi leaders Taha al-Mutawakkil and Khalid Madani were also seriously wounded in the attacks.

According to witnesses, one of the suicide bombers detonated his explosives inside the mosque, causing panic as dozens of worshippers rushed toward the outside gates.

A second bomber then attacked amid the panicked crowds trying to escape.

“Dozens of people have been injured or killed. We will understand the exact numbers of [the] dead and wounded soon. These are two very central and commonly used mosques,” the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post newspaper, Hakim Almasmari, told Al Jazeera.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis political bureau blamed al-Qaeda.

“Sanaa is safe,” Bukhaiti said, before adding that a few governorates were still under the control of al-Qaeda.

In another development, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a government compund in the Houthi stronghold of Saada province.

The Houthis, who are accused of being allies to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, descended from their heartland in northern Saada province last year, fighting their way towards Sanaa and defeating tribal and military rivals along the way.

In September, they flooded the capital, and raided major state institutions and military bases.

Earlier this year, they put Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the elected president, under house arrest; disbanded parliament and appointed Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a cousin of the group’s leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, as the new president.

Hadi has since fled to Aden and maintains he is the legitimate president. – Al Jazeera