By Ashley Repp

New Desk Reporter, Middle East

SANAA, Yemen-

As hundreds of Shi’ites gathered at two mosques in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, for Friday prayer services, attackers blended into the scenery using medical casts to conceal explosives. The bombers within the mosques then detonated the bombs, killing scores of worshipers. As people fled the mosques, bombers stationed outside then detonated a second round of bombs amidst the fleeing crowd. The death toll has not been officially set, but the number of those dead is estimated to be at least 130, and there are over 300 hundred wounded. Hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of individuals rushed in for emergency care, and staff made a call for immediate donations of blood to accommodate the pressing need in the wake of the attacks.

Yemen attack
Photo courtesy of CNN

 

While officials have not determined who is responsible for the attacks on the mosques, some point to ISIS, a Sunni extremist organization that considers the Shi’ite Houthi rebels to be heretics. Supporting this assertion, a twitter account that prominently features ISIS propaganda asserted that the mosque attacks were the first wave of attacks in Yemen. Some officials are skeptical that this was the work of ISIS, as the organization only recently set up in Yemen in November of 2014, and argued that, more realistically, this was the work of al-Queda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP has denied these allegations though, and asserts that it was given orders to refrain from attacking mosques and markets.

If this attack was indeed orchestrated by ISIS, it represents the ever growing concern that ISIS is expanding its reach quickly and effectively, and has the capacity to incite world wide security concerns. Compounding the concern, the attack in Yemen on Friday follows just on the heels of a terror attack in a Tunisian museum on Wednesday, for which ISIS also claimed responsibility. If ISIS continues to develop a stronghold in Yemen, the already precarious civil situation between Sunnis and Shi’ite Houthi rebels, could be further deteriorate and evolve into a civil war.

 

For more information, please visit:

BBC- Yemen Crisis: Islamic State claims Sanaa mosque attacks– Mar. 20, 2015

Al Jazeera- Scores killed in suicide attacks on Yemen mosques– Mar. 21, 2015

CNN- Yemen: Bombs kill 137 at mosques; ISIS purportedly lays claim– Mar. 20, 2015

Author: Impunity Watch Archive