Warning: The following images contain extremely graphic content
Four ISIS suicide bombers attacked a pair of crowded mosques in the capital of Yemen during midday prayers on Friday, killing at least 137 and wounding more than 350 in the deadliest violence to hit the war-torn nation in decades.
A group claiming to be a Yemeni branch of ISIS said it was responsible for the atrocities in Sanaa, calling them a “blessed operation” against the “dens of the Shiites” and warning of an “upcoming flood” of attacks against the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels, who have taken over much of Yemen.
Grisly footage aired by the rebel-owned Al-Masirah TV channel showed severed limbs and bodies — many of them children’s — lying in pools of blood outside the mosques as worshippers rushed the wounded to hospitals in pickup trucks.
Two suicide bombers attacked the Badr mosque in southern Sanaa while another pair attacked the al-Hashoosh mosque in northern Sanaa.
Mohammed Albasha, a Yemeni government spokesman in Washington, DC, said the bombers used similar tactics at both mosques, which are controlled by the Houthis. One would detonate explosives inside while the second waited outside for people to flee before blowing himself up, the spokesman said.
Survivors described scenes of complete carnage.
“I fell on the ground and when I regained consciousness I found myself sleeping on a lake of blood,” said Ahmed al-Gabri, who made it out of the Badr mosque.
Mohammed al-Ansi, who survived the al-Hashoosh blast, described similar horrors: “The heads, legs and arms of the dead people were scattered on the floor of the mosque. Blood is running like a river,” he said.
Footage from that bombing showed screaming volunteers using bloodied blankets to carry away victims, with a small child among the dead lined up on the floor of the mosque.
Witnesses compared the explosions to an earthquake and said some of those who survived the original blasts were injured by shattered glass falling from the mosque’s large hanging chandeliers.
A fifth suicide-bomb attack on another mosque was foiled in the northern city of Saada when the bomb detonated prematurely, killing only the terrorist, Al-Masirah TV reported.
The Houthis have controlled the capital since September and have been battling with Sunni al Qaeda fighters across the country.
If the claims are true, Friday’s bombings by the Islamic State branch in Yemen would be the first major attack by ISIS and a frightening sign that the group is spreading throughout the Middle East.
With Post Wires