SANAA, 23 August 2003 — Three worshippers were killed and 50 injured when an armed man hurled two hand grenades into a mosque in northern Yemen during Friday prayers, police said. The attacker, identified by police as Marsh Al-Akhram, was arrested on the spot and is being interrogated by police and tribal leaders, a police official told Arab News on condition of anonymity.
The official said only one of the two grenades went off, killing a man instantly. Two other worshippers later died in hospital of their injuries.
The scene of the attack was a small and crowded mosque in the town of Houth, some 120 km north of the capital Sanaa. Local officials contacted by Arab News said the assailant had a tribal dispute with some of the town’s residents.
However, some residents said the man was mentally disturbed.
Local officials said ten of the wounded were in critical condition and rushed to hospitals in Sanaa while the others were admitted to local hospitals.
The region’s tribal chieftains urged authorities to send the attacker to court for urgent trial to avoid bloody inter-tribal revenge attacks, the officials said.
The attack comes three weeks after an armed man shot dead eight people in an unexplained shooting spree at a mosque southern Yemen.
Armed violence is frequent in the tribal areas of Yemen, but the impoverished Arab country also has been the scene of several terror attacks by Islamic militants in recent years, mainly on Western targets.