By Elham Asaad Buaras

London, (The Muslim News): IS [Daesh] has claimed responsibility for a suicide and car bombings that killed at least 28 worshippers at a mosque in Sana’a on September 2. However, officials in Yemen say the death toll may rise.

A suicide bomber blew himself inside Al-Muayd Mosque in Sana’a during the evening call to prayers and then a car bomb exploded outside the entrance.

According to witnessess the car bomb exploded while people were carrying out the injured survivors from inside the mosque.

One witness, Hamid Ali, said the explosions left limbs and bloodied floors in the mosque frequented by both Sunni and Shia Muslims, adding that Huthi [Houthi] gunmen were deployed after the attack to set up new checkpoints across the capital.

Yemen’s local IS affiliate said it was behind the bombing, identifying the suicide attacker as Quay al-Sanaani.

[A worshipper injured in mosque blast being treated at Kuwait University Hospital in Sana’a on September 3, 2015. Photographer: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]

IS said in a statement on Twitter the attack was to “avenge Muslims against the Rafidah (Shias),” a reference to Shia [Zaidi] Muslims known as Houthis who hold Sana’a amid Yemen’s raging civil war

Its account was confirmed by sabanews.net, the website of Huthis.

The bombing, the latest in a wave of killings claimed by IS, came hours after the Red Cross said a gunman killed two of its Yemeni employees in the war-torn country’s rebel-held north in a “deliberate” attack.

The IS affiliate in Yemen has carried out similar attacks targeting mosques, including a series of suicide bombings on March 20 in Sana’a that killed 137 people and wounded 345.

[Photo: Residents inspect outside the in Al-Muayd Mosque after a deadly blast in capital Sanaa, Yemen, on September 03, 2015. Photographer: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency]