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Gunmen attack Yemen security offices, al Qaeda blamed
Source: Agencies |
July 14, 2010, Wednesday
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SUSPECTED al Qaeda gunmen assaulted two south Yemen security offices today in coordinated attacks, setting off fighting in which at least three people were killed, police said.
Witnesses and security sources said attackers on motorcycles roared into the police headquarters and the office of an intelligence agency handling political security in the town of Zinjibar. They opened fire as officers gathered in ranks for the morning roll call.
"A large number of gunmen attacked the political security and the General Security (police) offices at the beginning of the workday. Security guards fired on them, and there are dead and wounded on the scene," a police source said. "It is believed that the attackers were members of al Qaeda," he added.
Witnesses reached in Zinjibar told Reuters they saw five people believed dead on the street. They added that after the attack and subsequent clashes, the gunmen sped away on their motorcycles.
A doctor at a hospital in the Abyan province where the wounded were taken confirmed three deaths and said at least nine others were wounded, most of them security agents. A security source said the dead included an attacker and two security men.
The assault was the second by suspected al Qaeda gunmen on security offices in Yemen in less than a month. In June, al Qaeda attackers raided the southern regional headquarters of the political security office in the port city of Aden, killing 11.
That attack, which al Qaeda described as revenge for a state assault on a militant stronghold, was among the bloodiest in Yemen since the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 sailors. A suicide attack on the US embassy in 2008 by an al Qaeda-linked group killed 16 people, including 6 attackers.
Yemen, next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, leapt to the forefront of Western security concerns after a Yemen-based regional al Qaeda wing claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December.
Yemen's Western and Saudi allies want Sanaa, also trying to cement a northern truce and quell southern separatism, to resolve domestic conflicts and consolidate power so that it can focus on fighting al Qaeda.
Yemen escalated a crackdown on al Qaeda this year, and further stepped up security measures after accusing al Qaeda of being behind the June attack.
Witnesses and security sources said attackers on motorcycles roared into the police headquarters and the office of an intelligence agency handling political security in the town of Zinjibar. They opened fire as officers gathered in ranks for the morning roll call.
"A large number of gunmen attacked the political security and the General Security (police) offices at the beginning of the workday. Security guards fired on them, and there are dead and wounded on the scene," a police source said. "It is believed that the attackers were members of al Qaeda," he added.
Witnesses reached in Zinjibar told Reuters they saw five people believed dead on the street. They added that after the attack and subsequent clashes, the gunmen sped away on their motorcycles.
A doctor at a hospital in the Abyan province where the wounded were taken confirmed three deaths and said at least nine others were wounded, most of them security agents. A security source said the dead included an attacker and two security men.
The assault was the second by suspected al Qaeda gunmen on security offices in Yemen in less than a month. In June, al Qaeda attackers raided the southern regional headquarters of the political security office in the port city of Aden, killing 11.
That attack, which al Qaeda described as revenge for a state assault on a militant stronghold, was among the bloodiest in Yemen since the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 sailors. A suicide attack on the US embassy in 2008 by an al Qaeda-linked group killed 16 people, including 6 attackers.
Yemen, next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, leapt to the forefront of Western security concerns after a Yemen-based regional al Qaeda wing claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December.
Yemen's Western and Saudi allies want Sanaa, also trying to cement a northern truce and quell southern separatism, to resolve domestic conflicts and consolidate power so that it can focus on fighting al Qaeda.
Yemen escalated a crackdown on al Qaeda this year, and further stepped up security measures after accusing al Qaeda of being behind the June attack.
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