Twin-suicide attack: 25 killed in Yemen mosque bombing

Dozens more wounded as IS targets Eidul Azha worshippers

SANAA:

A twin-suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group targeting a mosque run by Yemen’s Houthi in Sanaa Thursday killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more during Eidul Azha prayers.

Sanaa, seized by the Houthi insurgents a year ago, has been shaken by a string of bombings in recent months by IS. Thursday’s blast ripped through the al Balili mosque, located near a police academy, where the rebels and their supporters go to pray, witnesses said. It came as Muslims marked Eidul Azha.

Witnesses said that after a first blast inside the mosque, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at the entrance as worshippers rushed out.

Nayef, who lives nearby, said he heard one explosion followed quickly by a second. “We gathered to rescue the wounded. The situation is very painful and blood is everywhere.”

The witnesses said the first blast shook the mosque soon after worshippers gathered for prayers. A second suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt when Houthi guards tried to stop him rushing deep inside the mosque.

“As the crowd rushed to leave the prayer room, a suicide bomber tried to force his way into the mosque,” said the mosque’s head of security, Adnane Khaled. “He was stopped at the entrance by a security officer and blew himself up.” Houthi fighters sealed off the area and shouted at onlookers to stay away.

According to Khaled, the perpetrators hid explosives inside shoes and clothing to get past searches introduced at the entrance after the previous attacks. “We found a shoe bomb and explosives hidden in underwear and abandoned in the toilet,” he said, adding that two devices had failed to detonate while a third had exploded inside the shrine, causing panic.

In an online statement, IS said one of its members wearing a suicide belt had struck ‘Houthi infidels’.

It was the second attack in the Yemeni capital this month to target a mosque. On September 2, at least 28 people were killed and 75 wounded in twin suicide bombings claimed by IS at a mosque in northern Sanaa.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2015.