ISIL-LINKED GROUP CLAIMS DEADLY YEMEN BOMBINGS

Armed men inspect damage after an explosion at Al badr mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday, March 20, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Sanaa, Yemen, 1 Ramadan 1436/18 June 2015 (MINA) – A Yemeni armed group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for series of attacks targeting mosques and the headquarters of the country’s dominant Houthi group in Sanaa.

Dozens of people are reportedly dead and injured in Wednesday’s coordinated attacks on at least three mosques and the political bureau of the Ansarullah movement of the Houthis in the Yemeni capital, Al Jazeera reports as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (Mina).

The group said the attacks were in “revenge” against Shia Houthis who have overrun Sanaa, and much of the Sunni majority country in the past one year.

A security official said that mosques belonging to the members of Zaidi sect of Shia Islam were the target.

The attacks occured as Muslims around the world prepared for the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Ambulances rushed through the streets in northern and central parts of the capital.

The bombings took place as peace talks in Geneva aimed at halting the fighting in Yemen were extended until at least Friday.

UN special envoy for Yemen, Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, met the rebel delegation in a Geneva hotel in the evening, after talks early in the day with the exiled government delegation. (T/P001/NMT)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)