On 13 November 2014 , ISIL announced that a branch of the group had been established in Yemen , following pledges of allegiance made by unidentified militants in the country . al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP ) , the strongest militant group in the country , rejected this establishment . By December of that year , ISIL had begun to build an active presence inside Yemen , and its recruitment drive brought it into direct competition with AQAP . The branch 's first attack occurred in March 2015 , when it carried out suicide bombings on 2 Shia Mosques in the Yemeni capital . In the following months it continued to carry out attacks aimed largely at civilian targets associated with the Shia Houthi movement
suicide bombings on 2 Shia Mosques
2015 Sana'a mosque bombings
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Yemen Province