Gun attack closes Yemen airport
Source: Agencies |
April 8, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
GUNMEN loyal to Yemen's ousted president blasted buildings at the country's main airport with anti-aircraft guns yesterday, forcing authorities to shut it down, an airport official said.
Armed tribesmen and troops driving pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons opened fire on a tower and destroyed it, he said. Then they surrounded the airport at the capital Sanaa, cut roads and sent passengers' vehicles away. Authorities canceled flights, the official said.
The attack comes a day after Yemen's new President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fired key security officials appointed by ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, including his half-brother, the air force commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, and his nephew, Tariq, who headed the presidential guard.
The siege of the airport highlights the challenges faced by Hadi, who has pledged to purge Saleh's loyalists from the army, the security apparatus and key government posts.
Saleh stepped down in February following a year-long uprising in which crowds rallied in city squares demanding an end to more than three decades of authoritarian rule.
In November, he signed a power-transfer deal backed by Washington and Gulf Arab states that gave him immunity from prosecution in return.
Critics of the deal say it gave Saleh the ability to act as a president from behind the scenes and plot his comeback, possibly by sewing instability.
On Thursday, Yemeni Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed told parliament that Saleh is still giving orders to governors and officials, using the headquarters of his son, Ahmed - commander of the powerful republican guards - as his operations room.
Saleh's opponents are particularly worried about his loyalists who command military units. The army has recently suffered several defeats in its war against al-Qaida-linked militants, and many believe that pro-Saleh commanders may be actively sabotaging the campaign.
Armed tribesmen and troops driving pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons opened fire on a tower and destroyed it, he said. Then they surrounded the airport at the capital Sanaa, cut roads and sent passengers' vehicles away. Authorities canceled flights, the official said.
The attack comes a day after Yemen's new President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fired key security officials appointed by ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, including his half-brother, the air force commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, and his nephew, Tariq, who headed the presidential guard.
The siege of the airport highlights the challenges faced by Hadi, who has pledged to purge Saleh's loyalists from the army, the security apparatus and key government posts.
Saleh stepped down in February following a year-long uprising in which crowds rallied in city squares demanding an end to more than three decades of authoritarian rule.
In November, he signed a power-transfer deal backed by Washington and Gulf Arab states that gave him immunity from prosecution in return.
Critics of the deal say it gave Saleh the ability to act as a president from behind the scenes and plot his comeback, possibly by sewing instability.
On Thursday, Yemeni Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed told parliament that Saleh is still giving orders to governors and officials, using the headquarters of his son, Ahmed - commander of the powerful republican guards - as his operations room.
Saleh's opponents are particularly worried about his loyalists who command military units. The army has recently suffered several defeats in its war against al-Qaida-linked militants, and many believe that pro-Saleh commanders may be actively sabotaging the campaign.
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