Aden---Yemen's embattled president requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council with his violence-wracked country teetering on the edge of civil war, as US forces evacuated from a key airbase.
The impoverished nation is torn between a north controlled by Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and a south dominated by allies of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled house arrest in Sanaa to Aden in February.
Hadi called for the Security Council meeting, to convene Sunday, after several suicide bombings at Shiite Huthi mosques claimed by the Sunni Islamic State group killed 142 people on Friday.
In his letter to the Council, Hadi denounced "the criminal acts of the Huthi militias and their allies," saying they "not only threaten peace in Yemen but the regional and international peace and security."
"I urge for your urgent intervention in all available means to stop this aggression that is aimed at undermining the legitimate authority, the fragmentation of Yemen and its peace and stability," Hadi wrote.
Yemen has been torn by unrest since ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in early 2012 after a year-long popular uprising against him, with powerful armed groups sidelining the government since.
The country is now on the brink of civil war, with a deepening political impasse and an increasingly explicit territorial division along sectarian lines, with rising violence between the Huthi and Sunni tribes and Al-Qaeda.
- 'Two sides of same coin' -
Hadi pledged Saturday to fight Iranian influence in his country after US troops at the Al-Anad airbase were pulled out amid fighting involving Al-Qaeda militants nearby which left at least 29 dead.
Accusing the Huthis of importing Tehran's ideology, Hadi lashed out at the Iran-backed militia after the mosque bombings, which also wounded 351 people.
The Huthis, who seized Sanaa in September, vowed to take further "revolutionary steps" following Friday's blasts.
By claiming its first attack in Yemen, IS is seeking to exploit the chaos gripping the country where rival Al-Qaeda has traditionally been the dominant militant movement.
In his first televised speech since he fled to Aden from house arrest in Sanaa, Hadi said he would ensure that "the Yemeni republic flag will fly on the Marran mountain in (the Huthi militia's northern stronghold) Saada, instead of the Iranian flag".
"The Iranian Twelver (Shiism) pattern that has been agreed upon between the Huthis and those who support them will not be accepted by Yemenis, whether Zaidi (Shiites) or Shafite (Sunnis)," he said.
The Huthis belong to the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam. They are believed to have converted to Twelver Shiism, which is followed by Iran, but insist that Tehran does not meddle in Yemeni affairs.
In a letter to relatives of the mosque bombings victims, Hadi condemned the attacks as "terrorist, criminal and cowardly".
"Such heinous attacks could only be done by the enemies of life," who want to drag Yemen into "chaos, violence and internal fighting", he said.
"Shiite extremism, represented by the armed Huthi militia, and Sunni extremism, represented by Al-Qaeda, are two sides of the same coin, who do not wish good and stability for Yemen and its people."
Hadi has declared Aden the country's temporary capital.
Friday's bombings came a day after clashes in the southern city between Hadi loyalists and forces allied with the Huthis.
AFP
