Cairo: A bomb exploded at an Al Houthi mosque in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Friday, wounding 13 people, a security source said, and Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Twitter.
“If there was an explosion it has already happened in Sana’a in the people’s district in an Al Houthi mosque. Daesh claims responsibility,” said the group.
According to a security source in Sana’a two out of the 13 wounded were in critical condition. No further details were available.
Meanwhile, huge explosions rocked the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Friday after Saudi-led air strikes against positions held by Al Houthi militiamen and their allies, residents said.
In southern Yemen, at least 19 fighters were killed in air strikes and in clashes on the ground, security sources said.
“It was a morning of terror,” a resident of a southern suburb of Sana’a told AFP after a string of raids on military bases in the Dhabwa and Rimat Hamid areas.
In north Sana’a, coalition warplanes attacked a stadium and a camp of the Republican Guards loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has sided with Al Houthis.
Other targets included another camp, in Samaa, and Dalaimi air base, near the capital’s international airport, witnesses said.
Residents said the coalition also struck Huthi positions in Marib province, to the east of Sana’a, but no immediate casualty tolls were available for any of the raids.
Eight Al Houthis were killed in air raids on Aden, while another eight died in street fighting in the southern port city against pro-Hadi fighters, who also lost three men.
Across the border in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi civilian was killed and three people wounded in shelling of Najran province from northern Yemen, state television said.
The coalition has waged an air campaign against Al Houthis since March 26 in an effort to restore the authority of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Al Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh with members of his government.
A United Nations conference to relaunch political talks on Yemen is to open in Geneva next week, despite uncertainty over who will attend.
