Egypt's Al-Azhar and Foreign Ministry condemn Yemen bombings

Saturday 21-03-2015 01:53 PM
Egypt's Al-Azhar and Foreign Ministry condemn Yemen bombings
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CAIRO, Mar 21 (Aswat Masriya) - The deadly twin bombings in Yemeni capital Sanaa have been strongly condemned by Egypt's Foreign Ministry and Al-Azhar, in two separate statements on Friday and Saturday. 

The suicide blasts in Yemen hit two mosques at the time of the weekly Friday prayers, when mosques are most crowded. Yemeni state agency SABA said the death toll is 137 and 357 were injured. 

Al-Azhar called on the Yemeni people to unite behind Yemen's "supreme interests" and to reject "division and sectarianism", in its statement today.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, condemned the blasts in the "strongest terms" and reaffirmed Egypt's "fixed position" of condemning any "terrorist or criminal attacks that target innocent civilians anywhere."  

"Terrorism has no religion or home," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, reiterating that "terrorism is a global phenomenon". 

Intensified fighting in the Yemeni capital has forced Egypt to shut down its embassy in February over security concerns

The Houthis, a Shi'a rebel movement which has controlled Sanaa since last September, took control of the Yemeni presidential palace after fighting with presidential guards in January.

The group has since forced then-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his administration to step down.  

Hadi later went to the coastal city of Aden in south Yemen in February, where he claimed that he remains the rightful president of Yemen.   

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