SANAA: Triple suicide bombings killed at least 140 worshippers and wounded hundreds more Friday at mosques in quick succession in the Yemeni capital sparking countrywide outrage.
One report said 347 people were wounded in the attacks that hit mosques crowded with worshippers.
Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks, Reuters reported.
Witnesses said two bombers carried out an attack inside the Badr mosque in southern Sanaa during middle of the weekly Friday prayers.
One walked inside the mosque and detonated his explosive device, causing panic and making dozens of worshippers rush toward the outside gates. A second bomber then attacked at the gate as panicked worshippers tried to flee.
A third bomber targeted al-Hashoosh mosque in northern Sanaa. One witness at the mosque said the force of the explosion threw him a couple of meters away.
The heads, legs and arms of the dead people were scattered on the floor of the mosque, Mohammed al-Ansi said, adding, Blood is running like a river.
Ansi noted that many of those who did not die in the blast were critically wounded by shattered glass falling from the windows.
Al-Massira television, run by Ansarullah Movement of Shia Houthi tribe, said hospitals in the capital had made urgent appeals for blood donations.
Leading Shia cleric Al-Murtada bin Zayd al-Muhatwari, the imam of the Badr mosque, was among those killed, a medical source said.
Medics at the main hospital in Sanaa told AFP they counted 55 people dead and 83 wounded.
A branch of ISIL in Yemen claimed responsibility for the bombings in an online statement on Friday, warning that the attacks were just the tip of the iceberg.
Footage aired by Al-Massira showed bodies lying in pools of blood outside the mosques, as worshippers rushed the wounded to hospitals in pick-up trucks.
Another suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in the northern Huthi stronghold of Saada, a source close to the militia said.
Only the assailant was killed in that explosion and tight security at the mosque prevented the bomber from going inside, the source added.
Ansarullah overran Sanaa in September and have since tightened its grip on power.
Their attempts to extend control into other areas have been met by deadly resistance from Sunni tribes and Al-Qaeda.
Todays attacks, however, are the deadliest since a car bomb killed 40 people and wounded dozens more at a police academy in Sanaa in January as recruits lined up to register.
The attacks come a day after intense gun battles between supporters and opponents of fugitive President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in the southern port city of Aden left more than a dozen people dead and forced closure of the citys international airport.
Hadi, along with members of Prime Minister Khaled Bahahs cabinet, stepped down in late January, but the parliament did not approve the resignation. The president fled his home in Sanaa on February 21, after weeks under effective house arrest and went to Aden, Yemens second largest city, where he officially withdrew his resignation and highlighted his intention to resume duties. This came after the Houthi fighters took control of Sanaa in September 2014.
Some Persian Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have already relocated their embassies from Sanaa to Aden.
Hadi also called on the Ansarullah revolutionaries to relinquish power and leave Sanaa. The Houthis, however, said Hadi had lost his legitimacy as head of state and was being sought as a fugitive from justice.
The Houthi movement played a key role in the 2011 popular uprising that forced former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to quit after 33 years in power. The revolutionaries say the government has been incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and providing security.
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