At least 28 people were killed in two suicide bombings at a mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled state-run Saba news agency said Wednesday.
ISIS claimed responsibility on social media for the attacks.
Dozens of people were wounded in the bombings, Yemeni Defense Ministry officials said.
The first attack targeted Al Moayyad mosque, a pro-Houthi neighborhood in northern Sanaa and the second bombing took place as civilians were trying to help the victims of the first attack, ministry officials said.
This is the fifth mosque attack over the past two months in Sanaa. The attacks have targeted pro-Houthi mosques.
It’s all part of the turmoil and violence that has wracked Yemen for months, as the Houthis — a minority group that has long held sway in northern Yemen — increasingly asserted themselves elsewhere in the country, including taking over Sanaa early this year.
President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi resigned in January, only to come back later (after fleeing the country) to claim he is still Yemen’s rightful president. He has gotten support from, among others, Saudi Arabia’s government, which spearheaded a coalition that launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in March.
Houthi rebels are acting as the government in Yemen, while the internationally recognized government is in exile.
There has been off-and-on talks of ceasefires, but nothing so far has stuck. Instead, the Houthis have lost more and more ground to forces tied to Hadi.