By Mohammed Ghobari
SANAA (Reuters) - Islamic State's Yemen branch claimed responsibility for two bombings at a mosque in a northern district of the capital Sanaa that media run by the Houthi militia said killed at least 28 people and wounded 75 on Wednesday.
The al-Mo'ayyad mosque, run by the Houthis in the al-Jarraf neighbourhood of Sanaa, has previously been targeted by the ultra-radical Islamic State, who regard the Iran-allied Houthis as heretics.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said in a text message that the first explosion was caused by a suicide bomber in the al-Mo'ayyad mosque, followed by a car bomb blast that targeted medics outside the building.
A civil war in Yemen escalated in March when a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia intervened to roll back the hold of Iran-allied Houthi militia over much of the country and to reinstate the government from its exile in Riyadh.
The Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa a year ago. More than 4,500 people have been killed in the Arabian Peninsula country's conflict.
Earlier on Wednesday, two Red Cross employees were shot dead in the northern Yemeni province of Amran by an unknown attacker, the international aid group said, in a rare case of violence against humanitarian workers in the war.