A man shot dead eight worshippers and wounded two at a mosque in southern Yemen on Wednesday, security officials said. The motive behind the attack were not immediately clear. The officials said five men died on the spot and three died of their wounds later. The attack took place in Lahaj province, about 190 miles south of the capital Sanaa. Security sources said the gunman, who was arrested, could be a Muslim extremist with a grudge against moderate Muslims.
Militants have been involved in shootings and attacks on Westerners in Yemen, a hotbed for Islamists and the ancestral home of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Clashes between tribes and groups are also frequent in the poor Arab country where unlicensed weapons are widespread after years of civil war.
Followup, from Bahrain Tribune...
The gunman burst into the Koranic school of the mosque in the village of Yahar, before mowing down worshippers with machine-gun fire. Security officials said they remained unclear about the motives of the attack, although preliminary investigations suggested the gunman had suffered psychological problems since being stripped of his position as an army colonel after Yemen’s 1994 civil war.
| Not a Takfiri, just a garden variety nut, or maybe Dire Revenge™... |
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