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| Arabia |
| Suspected Qaeda members kill Yemeni colonel |
| 2010-06-06 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A Yemeni colonel and two of his bodyguards were killed in an attack by suspected al-Qaeda members on Saturday near the city of Marib east of the capital, a tribal source said. "Colonel Mohammed Saleh al-Shaief and two bodyguards were killed when his vehicle was fired upon by al-Qaeda members" from another car, the source said. Shaief, 43, was travelling with a convoy to inspect military forces stationed in the Safar oil field when the attack occurred south of Marib, the source added. A military source confirmed that Shaief and two bodyguards were killed in an attack, but did not accuse al-Qaeda of being behind it. Another tribal source said that an al-Qaeda member identified as Al-Uqaili, from the Beyhan area south of Marib, was among the attackers. In late May, provincial official Jaber Ali al-Shabwani and four of his bodyguards were killed an air strike in Marib province that targeted a wanted al-Qaeda suspect. The suspect, named as Mohammed Said bin Jardan, was wounded but managed to escape, security sources said. The deaths sparked a string of revenge attacks in Marib by members of the Al-Shabwan tribe, on the oil pipeline from the Safar field, petrol stations, army positions and a government building. Two tribesmen were also killed and a policeman was wounded in the unrest. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered an investigation into those incidents, and the high security council vowed to continue efforts against al-Qaeda. Yemen is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and has been the scene of several attacks claimed by the group on foreign missions, tourist sites and oil installations. Marib is one of al-Qaeda's strongholds in Yemen. The group has suffered setbacks amid U.S. pressure on the government to crack down. But its presence threatens to turn Yemen into a base for training and plotting attacks, a senior U.S. counter-terrorism official said in September. In addition to the al-Qaeda threat, Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is also contending with a separatist movement in the south and the aftermath of a six-year uprising by Zaidi Shiite rebels in the far north. |
| Posted by:Fred |