Bombing and Booby-Trapping Mosques: Houthi Terrorism Hits Places of Worship
Despite the use of religious slogans, the booby-trapping of mosques has been the policy of Houthi militias, who have adopted a sectarian project that uses violence as a means to achieve their goals.
Mosques have become a target for Houthi militias to root their “sectarian” ideology, but their policy of “inflaming” houses of worship according to their methodology was based on several axes; These include turning them into platforms to market their violent project and turning them into a den that spreads a culture of hatred and hostility towards Yemeni and Arab identity in general, as well as booby-trapping and blowing up mosques that serve as centers of enlightenment for exposing the claims of those coup militias.
Over the past years, Huthi militias have kidnapped, hid, and tortured hundreds of imams, preachers, and mosque preachers who refused to submit to their curricula, even imposing on them preachers from militia members.
Al-Roun Mosque in Yemen’s Hodeidah was one of the places of worship that Houthi militias targeted. A drone strike killed two people and wounded five others in the attack on Friday (December 2nd).
The bombing of al-Roun mosque is the latest practice by Houthi militias against houses of worship in liberated areas, and is one of 3,370 incidents of violation of mosques and places of worship in 14 Yemeni governorates by Houthi militias supported by Iran for seven years, according to a recent report by the Yemen Network for Rights and Freedoms; (Non-governmental Human Rights Coalition).
Houthi militia violations against places of worship have been concentrated in the governorates of Amanat Sanaa, Amran, Hajjah, Saada, al-Jawf, Marib, Dhamar, Ibb, al-Bayda, al-Dhale, Taiz, Rima, and al-Mahwit.
Systematic bombing
The report showed “horrifying” figures of Houthi militia crimes against Yemeni mosques, revealing that more than 162 mosques were systematically bombed by “coup” elements.
The report indicated that Houthi militias committed 760 violations against mosques and places of worship in Yemen, foremost among them the direct bombing of houses of God, explosions and booby-traps that targeted 80 mosques. Forty-five mosques were burnt, and 137 were stormed, looted, and tampered with the contents.
The report also noted the transformation of 378 mosques into military barracks for Houthi militias. They deal with qat, shisha, shamma and dancing, and 94 mosques into centers for brainwashing children and distorting their minds.
Wholesale violations
The report documented the transfer of 54 mosques into operations rooms for the actions of the Houthi military militia, 35 mosque closures, 1,256 imams and preachers, and 467 Qur’an memorization schools.
The report also revealed that Houthi militias were involved in 109 cases of killing preachers, imams, clerics, and worshippers, including 62 cases of direct-fire killings, 17 cases of indiscriminate shelling, 19 cases of excessive force and beatings, 11 cases of murder by stabbing and using white weapons, and 132 cases of physical injury.
The report documented that 376 imams, preachers, and worshipers were kidnapped by Houthi militias, and about 52 individuals were tortured physically and psychologically by imams, preachers, and some mosque workers, including six cases of torture to death in Houthi detention centers.
Sanaa and the capital’s mayoralty topped the list of violations against mosques and places of worship, he said
Same coexistence
The bombing and shelling of mosques reveals the ideological, intellectual and cultural dimensions of the Houthi militia’s sectarian wars in Yemen, which aim to undermine co-existence and are part of genocidal attacks that may amount to a war crime, said al-Hodeidah province governor Hassan Taher.
In a statement, Governor Taher described the bombing of the Al-Roun Archeological Mosque by Houthi militias in the district of Hays as a “new full-scale war crime that requires the explicit stance and condemnation of the United Nations and its special envoy, Hans Grundberg.”
He pointed out that the Houthi terrorist militias, backed by Iran, practice a policy of collective punishment against the people of Hays and Tihama in general for their republican national positions.
