22 die as suicide bomber strikes at Yemeni police
Source: Agencies |
July 12, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
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A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up outside a police academy in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, yesterday, killing at least 22 people - many of them young police cadets - in an attack investigators said bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida.
Policeman Fadel Ali said the cadets were leaving the college when the bomber attacked. "We ran to the place and found dozens of cadets covered in blood. Blood was everywhere. The scene was horrific."
Another witness said he saw a man in his 20s enter the crowd as cadets gathered in front of the academy. "A loud explosion shook the area and I saw cadets lying on the ground with blood everywhere."
The bombing followed a similar attack in the capital in May, when a suicide bomber in army uniform killed more than 90 people during a military parade rehearsal.
That attack - claimed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula - along with yesterday's bombing showed how far the Yemeni government is from defeating the Islamist insurgents despite a US-backed military offensive that drove them out of their southern strongholds.
Theodore Karasik, director of research and development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said AQAP appeared to be adopting methods used in Iraq.
"It's the same kind of tactics that we see al-Qaida using in Iraq, targeting police academies and the military. There is a migration of tactics from al-Qaida in Iraq to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," he said.
The insurgents had been emboldened by waning government control over Yemen during last year's protests that ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. They seized several southern cities before being driven out this year.
The US has been using drone missile strikes to target Islamist insurgents in Yemen. It is an expansion of a secretive program that has raised questions both at home and abroad.
Policeman Fadel Ali said the cadets were leaving the college when the bomber attacked. "We ran to the place and found dozens of cadets covered in blood. Blood was everywhere. The scene was horrific."
Another witness said he saw a man in his 20s enter the crowd as cadets gathered in front of the academy. "A loud explosion shook the area and I saw cadets lying on the ground with blood everywhere."
The bombing followed a similar attack in the capital in May, when a suicide bomber in army uniform killed more than 90 people during a military parade rehearsal.
That attack - claimed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula - along with yesterday's bombing showed how far the Yemeni government is from defeating the Islamist insurgents despite a US-backed military offensive that drove them out of their southern strongholds.
Theodore Karasik, director of research and development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said AQAP appeared to be adopting methods used in Iraq.
"It's the same kind of tactics that we see al-Qaida using in Iraq, targeting police academies and the military. There is a migration of tactics from al-Qaida in Iraq to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," he said.
The insurgents had been emboldened by waning government control over Yemen during last year's protests that ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. They seized several southern cities before being driven out this year.
The US has been using drone missile strikes to target Islamist insurgents in Yemen. It is an expansion of a secretive program that has raised questions both at home and abroad.
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