Shia rebels, known as Houthis, stand near a damaged car after a bomb attack in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, March 20, 2015. Triple suicide bombers hit a pair of mosques crowded with worshipers in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Friday, causing heavy casualties, according to witnesses. The attackers targeted mosques frequented by Shiite rebels, who have controlled the capital since September.
Suicide bomb attacks on two Shiite mosques in Yemen’s capital on Friday killed at least 135 people and wounded 345, according to the TV station Al Masirah, which is run by Shiite Houthi rebels, who overtook the city in September.
A medical source told Reuters the death toll was at least 126. Hospitals treating the wounded are overwhelmed and appealing for blood donations.
« I was going to pray at the mosque then I heard the first explosion, and a second later I heard another one, » a witness of the Badr mosque attack told Reuters.
« 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 reporters, according to The Independent.
A group claiming to be an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, said it was responsible for the onslaught at the Badr and Hashoush mosques in Sanaa. However, the link has not been independently verified, and the Guardian emphasized there is no proof of an ISIS role.
Updates and reports are being posted to Twitter: