Militants attack Yemen intelligence HQ, killing 20
By AHMED AL-HAJ
Associated Press / August 19, 2012
SANAA, Yemen (AP) - The death toll of an al-Qaida suspected attack on a
Yemeni intelligence headquarters rose to 20 on Saturday, in the worst such
attack in a year that highlights the challenges faced by the country's new
leadership as it struggles to bring security and reconcile a military with
split loyalties.
The attack, in the heart of the port city of Aden, underscored al-Qaida's
ability to launch deadly strikes despite a two-month Yemeni military
offensive backed by the U.S. that earlier this year dislodged militants who
had taken over a string of southern towns near Aden.
In a coordinated attack, two groups of masked militants stormed the
intelligence building from two sides, firing automatic weapons and
rocket-propelled grenades, according to intelligence officials in the city
and witnesses from the adjacent state TV and radio building.
While one group clashed with guards of the intelligence building's main
gate, a second threw a bomb at a small mosque, killing soldiers who were
resting and sleeping inside, officials said. The gunmen then sprayed their
victims with bullets before detonating a car bomb in front of the
intelligence building, collapsing its facade.
Witnesses said they saw gunmen open fire on three soldiers at a front gate,
killing them on the spot, before launching rocket-propelled grenades at the
building and mistakenly hitting the television offices. Two female reporters
were critically wounded, witnesses said.
By the end of the day, 20 were dead. All were military and security men
except for one civilian, while six other civilians were injured aside from
the reporters.
The same intelligence building had come under attack in 2010 by al-Qaida.
Saturday's attack, which took nearly 45 minutes, carries the fingerprints of
the group, a security official said.
Officials and the witnesses, who are government employees, spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the
press.
The United States considers al-Qaida in The Arabian Peninsula as the terror
network's most dangerous offshoot, held responsible for several failed
attacks on U.S. territory.
Al-Qaida-linked militants took advantage of political turmoil in Yemen to
overrun several major towns in Abyan province, neighboring Aden. They held
many of them months until the military drove them out of most areas since
the offensive started in May, including the Abyan provincial capital of
Zinjibar and the nearby town of Jaar. More than 100,000 people fled the
violence there, with many taking refuge in makeshift shelters and schools in
Aden.
Many of the militants escaped into nearby mountains, however, and have
continued to carry out attacks. Suicide bombings and assassinations have
targeted top officials in Aden tasked with fighting al-Qaida. An al-Qaida
front group, Ansar al-Shariah, was behind the kidnapping of a Saudi Arabian
diplomat in the port of Aden in March.
Yemen's Interior Ministry warned of possible attacks during the four-day
Muslim holiday Eid al-Iftar, which comes as the holy month of Ramadan ends
this weekend. Analysts say the attack underscores the fragile nature of the
new political leadership as it struggles to impose law and order and restore
the country's security as state institutions maintain split loyalties.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi still faces a challenge from ousted
authoritarian ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, they say.
''The attack shows that the new leadership doesn't yet hold control over its
forces,'' said Masnour Hayel, a political analyst in Sanaa. ''This could be
reluctance, or collaboration, or both. But in the end, the new leader
doesn't hold all the strings of power, and many institutions are not
executing his orders.''
Since the ouster of Saleh in a power transfer deal that gave him immunity
from prosecution in return for stepping down, he has been widely believed to
play a behind-the-scenes role, posing an obstacle to the new president's
reform plans to restructure the military and security forces and unify their
ranks.
The area sees other violence as well. Earlier this week, gunmen stormed a
passenger plane after it landed in Aden and grabbed an opposition leader
from his seat and spirited him away to an unknown destination. The masked
gunmen burst into the airport building first, meeting no resistance from
airport security. They then ran onto the runway and boarded the plane to
kidnap retired Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah al-Hassani, a former Yemeni navy
commander and a prominent campaigner for the south's secession. It is not
clear who was behind the abduction. Al-Hassani was released on Saturday.end
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Received on Sun Aug 19 2012 - 06:24:25 EDT
