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| Suicide Attack at Mosque in Yemen Kills at Least 25 | Suicide Attack at Mosque in Yemen Kills at Least 25 |
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| SANA, Yemen — Suicide bombings at a mosque killed at least 25 people here on Thursday during prayers to commemorate the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday, Interior Ministry officials said. | SANA, Yemen — Suicide bombings at a mosque killed at least 25 people here on Thursday during prayers to commemorate the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday, Interior Ministry officials said. |
| Tamim al-Shami, a spokesman for Yemen’s Health Ministry, said that the mosque, in the Al Bilili neighborhood, was attacked by two bombers: One who hid explosives inside a shoe and detonated them as he entered the mosque, and another who attacked worshipers as they fled that initial blast. | Tamim al-Shami, a spokesman for Yemen’s Health Ministry, said that the mosque, in the Al Bilili neighborhood, was attacked by two bombers: One who hid explosives inside a shoe and detonated them as he entered the mosque, and another who attacked worshipers as they fled that initial blast. |
| A Yemeni-based affiliate of the Islamic State released a statement later on Thursday saying that one of its members had carried out the bombing. The group has claimed responsibility for a string of recent similar attacks on mosques in Sana, including one this month that killed at least 32 people. | A Yemeni-based affiliate of the Islamic State released a statement later on Thursday saying that one of its members had carried out the bombing. The group has claimed responsibility for a string of recent similar attacks on mosques in Sana, including one this month that killed at least 32 people. |
| The bombings by the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group that is also known as ISIS or ISIL, have often been seen as efforts to incite a broader sectarian conflict with followers of the Houthis, the Shiite-led rebel movement that has controlled Sana for more than a year. Some of the mosques the group has attacked, including the one on Thursday, were frequented by Houthi supporters, though Yemen’s mosques are generally not segregated by sect. | |
| The frequency of the attacks has also raised questions about how securely the Houthis control the capital, six months after a Saudi-led military coalition began an offensive to drive them from Sana and other cities. Coalition warplanes have been battering Sana with airstrikes for weeks now, in what is seen as a possible preparation for a ground invasion of the city by allied forces in a province east of the capital. | The frequency of the attacks has also raised questions about how securely the Houthis control the capital, six months after a Saudi-led military coalition began an offensive to drive them from Sana and other cities. Coalition warplanes have been battering Sana with airstrikes for weeks now, in what is seen as a possible preparation for a ground invasion of the city by allied forces in a province east of the capital. |
| The war started in March after the Houthis drove Yemen’s president, Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, into exile in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis, alongside a coalition of other Sunni Arab states, began the air offensive against the Houthis to restore Mr. Hadi and his government to power. | |
| Allegations of abuses by the combatants surfaced from the earliest days of the conflict, establishing a pattern of fighting that has left about 5,000 people dead. As the Houthis laid siege to the southern port city of Aden beginning in March, they unleashed deadly barrages of mortar and rocket fire on residential neighborhoods in a vain effort to rout local fighters resisting the Houthis. | |
| The same month, the Saudi-led coalition bombed a camp in northern Yemen for internally displaced people, killing dozens in the first of many airstrikes that have caused mass casualties among civilians. | |
| Negotiations to end the conflict have faltered as the fighting has grown more intense, hampering the efforts of aid workers trying to dispense medicine, food and fuel across a country that has become more insecure by the day. Since being driven out of Aden in July, the Houthis have fought furiously to retain territory, including the city of Taiz, where hundreds have been killed in the fighting. | |
| With a similar fury, the Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Sana and other parts of northern Yemen for weeks. Saudi officials have largely brushed off criticism of the airstrikes, which have hit factories, markets and dense neighborhoods. | |
| Human rights groups have said the United States, which has provided military support to the Saudi-led coalition, could be considered a party to the war in the event of wars crimes charges. American officials have said they are pressing the Saudis to investigate human rights violations, but the Obama administration has avoided any direct, public criticism of the Saudi government, one of its closest regional allies. | |
| There are no precise estimates of how many civilians have been killed during the conflict, but humanitarian workers have estimated that they make up at least half and probably more of the total number of deaths. A recent United Nations report documenting the impact of explosive weapons in the conflict found that 86 percent of all deaths and injuries from such weapons were among civilians. |