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Al Qaeda claims Yemen attacks, vows more strikes
Al Qaeda's Yemen arm said on Friday it was behind the coordinated attacks on security offices in the Arabian peninsula state in which four people were killed, and threatened more strikes on Yemeni targets. Gunmen on motorcycles stormed police and intelligence offices in south Yemen and opened fire on July 14, part of a series of recent al Qaeda attacks in response to a government crackdown. 'Two squads of the Jamil al-Ambari Martyr Brigades carried out attacks on the dens of oppression and aggression - the political and general security buildings in Abyan province - in two blessed operations', al Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing said in a statement posted on an website. Yemen's Western allies fear the regional impact of a failed state in Yemen, right next door to oil exporter S Arabia. Yemen is bogged down in domestic conflicts in its north and south while also fighting al Qaeda, which has struck Western and Arab targets in recent months. The attacks, including a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December and a suicide bombing that failed to kill the British ambassador, prompted Sanaa to respond with airstrikes and military assaults. Al Qaeda, which said the July attack was in response to the killing of a militant in Abyan, stepped up its rhetoric against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Al Qaeda in Yemen previously focused on high-impact strikes against Western and Saudi targets, but appears to have turned its focus to government forces in response to enhanced Yemen-US security coordination and a government crackdown. Al Arabiya television said al Qaeda had also claimed that attack. Yemen's poorly equipped security forces are easier to strike than many Western targets, and the group may hope to capitalise on anti-government sentiment in the south, home to a strong and growing separatist movement. Posted by: Fred 2010-07-24 |
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