Mosque bombing in Yemen capital kills at least 25

Yemen's branch of Islamic State claim responsibility for the attack

SANAA: A suicide bomber struck a mosque in Yemen's capital on Thursday in an attack targeting Shia worshippers that killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens during holiday prayers, medics and witnesses said.

The attack was later claimed by Yemen's branch of Islamic State (IS) in a statement posted on social media.

Thursday's blast ripped through the Balili mosque where Houthi Shia rebels who control Sanaa go to pray, according to witnesses. It came as Muslims marked Eidul Azha.

Witnesses reported that after a first blast inside the mosque, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at the entrance as worshippers rushed outside. It was not immediately clear if the first blast was also from a suicide bomber.

IS, a radical Sunni Muslim group which controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, considers Shia to be heretics.

IS bomb attacks targeting several Shia mosques in Sanaa on March 21 killed 142 people. The group has also claimed attacks on mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The capital of Sunni-majority Yemen has been under the control of the Iran-backed Huthi rebels for the past year. The insurgents have also expanded their grip to other parts of the country.

Pro-government forces backed by air strikes and troops provided by a Saudi-led Arab coalition have recently managed to wrest back some southern provinces, including the second city of Aden.

After six months in exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi returned to Aden on Tuesday with a vow to liberate the country from the Huthis.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels on March 26, and began a ground operation in July.

Hadi loyalists began an all-out offensive against the Huthis in the oil-rich Marib province east of Sanaa earlier this month, aiming to retake the capital.

The United Nations says around 5,000 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded, many of them civilians, since late March in Yemen.

Yemen has descended into chaos since the 2012 ouster of longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, and security has broken down since Huthi militiamen swept unopposed into the capital a year ago.

IS and the Yemen-based branch of its rival al Qaeda have exploited the turmoil to boost their activities in the impoverished country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Al Qaeda has long been the dominant force in Yemen, located next to oil-flush Saudi Arabia and key shipping lanes, but experts say IS is seeking to supplant its extremist rival.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) controls parts of the vast southeastern province of Hadramawt, including the provincial capital Mukalla, which it is seized in April.

It has distanced itself from IS's tactics, saying that it avoids targeting mosques to protect "innocent Muslims".

The United States has waged a longstanding drone war against AQAP which it regards as the militant network's most dangerous branch.