ISIL Claims Responsibility For Car Blast In Sanaa As Air Strikes Hit Aden

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The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for a deadly car bombing that hit outside a mosque in Yemen’s capital, as coalition warplanes bombarded the southern city of Aden. Saturday’s explosion in Sanaa killed at least two people and wounded 16 others, medical officials told the Agence France Presse news agency. Aljazeera was there:

It happened outside the Kobbat al-Mehdi mosque as Shia Muslims emerged from midday prayers, witnesses and security sources said. The blast, which comes as Muslims observe the fasting month of Ramadan, damaged the entrance of the mosque and shattered the windows of a nearby house.

SITE Intelligence Group said ISIL claimed the attack, the latest in a series that has targeted Sanaa, which the Houthi rebels seized in September.  Since then, the Houthis have expanded their control to other parts of Sunni-majority Yemen, including Aden in the south, forcing President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.

Saturday’s car attack came just hours after coalition warplanes launched 15 strikes against Houthi targets in the port city of Aden. A pro-government military source said the dawn strikes pounded the northern, eastern and western approaches to Aden, to isolate the Houthis and support forces loyal to Hadi. In response, rebels shelled several neighbourhoods of Aden, killing four people and wounding several others, the military source said, a toll confirmed by hospital officials.