SANAA (Reuters) - At least 16 people were killed when suicide bombers blew themselves up in two mosques in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Friday during noon prayers, medical sources told Reuters.
The mosques in Sanaa are known to be used mainly by supporters of the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi group which has control of most of northern Yemen, including Sanaa.
One witness said he heard two successive blasts at one of the mosques, known as Badr mosque, in a busy neighbourhood in central Sanaa.
"I was going to pray at the mosque then heard the first explosion, and a second later I heard another one," the witness told Reuters.
Hospitals in Sanaa were appealing for blood donors to help treat the large number of casualties.
The rise to power of the Iran-backed Houthis since September last year has deepened divisions in Yemen's complex web of political and religious allegiances, and left the country increasingly cut off from the outside world.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Rania El Gamal, Editing by Sami Aboudi/Hugh Lawson)
