Yemen’s defense minister Mohammad Nasser Ali escaped a bomb attack on his convoy in the southern city of Aden.
Πηγή: AL ARABIYA
Sep. 27 2011
Yemeni Defense Minister Mohammad Nasser Ahmad Ali survived an assassination attempt when a suicide bomber blew off a car packed with explosives into the minister’s convoy in the southern port city of Aden, a security official said.
“A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives drove into the minister’s motorcade as he was driving out of a tunnel,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The assailant was killed, the official said.
Earlier a source told Reuters that the blast, which injured 10 soldiers travelling in the first vehicle in the convoy, had been set off by remote control, adding that the defense minister was in the second car.
The attack came as Ali was heading to a hotel in Aden where he has been staying on a duty visit to the restive south.
Troops have been engaged in deadly fighting for months with al-Qaeda linked militants in Abyan province, east of the city.
A witness told AFP that the explosion “was big and flames erupted from the bomb-laden car,” adding that he saw wounded soldiers.
Investigators found the body of a 19-year-old inside the car which exploded and concluded he was a suicide bomber. A security official told Reuters the attack was consistent with al Qaeda's tactics.
Residents in the area saw two cars ablaze and clouds of smoke where the attack took place.
Since popular protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh paralyzed impoverished Yemen earlier this year, Islamist militants suspected of links to al-Qaeda have tightened their grip on the south, seizing several towns and targeting troops and security officials.
International powers fear growing lawlessness in Yemen could embolden al-Qaeda’s local wing and imperil shipping routes. Aden lies close to the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
The defense minister survived when his convoy drove over a landmine on Aug. 30 in the southern province of Abyan, which neighbors Aden. Two of his bodyguards were killed.
Sep. 27 2011
Yemeni Defense Minister Mohammad Nasser Ahmad Ali survived an assassination attempt when a suicide bomber blew off a car packed with explosives into the minister’s convoy in the southern port city of Aden, a security official said.
“A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives drove into the minister’s motorcade as he was driving out of a tunnel,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The assailant was killed, the official said.
Earlier a source told Reuters that the blast, which injured 10 soldiers travelling in the first vehicle in the convoy, had been set off by remote control, adding that the defense minister was in the second car.
The attack came as Ali was heading to a hotel in Aden where he has been staying on a duty visit to the restive south.
Troops have been engaged in deadly fighting for months with al-Qaeda linked militants in Abyan province, east of the city.
A witness told AFP that the explosion “was big and flames erupted from the bomb-laden car,” adding that he saw wounded soldiers.
Investigators found the body of a 19-year-old inside the car which exploded and concluded he was a suicide bomber. A security official told Reuters the attack was consistent with al Qaeda's tactics.
Residents in the area saw two cars ablaze and clouds of smoke where the attack took place.
Since popular protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh paralyzed impoverished Yemen earlier this year, Islamist militants suspected of links to al-Qaeda have tightened their grip on the south, seizing several towns and targeting troops and security officials.
International powers fear growing lawlessness in Yemen could embolden al-Qaeda’s local wing and imperil shipping routes. Aden lies close to the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
The defense minister survived when his convoy drove over a landmine on Aug. 30 in the southern province of Abyan, which neighbors Aden. Two of his bodyguards were killed.
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