DUBAI: Al QaedaÂ’s Yemeni wing has claimed responsibility for the assassination this week of a military commander credited with driving back allies of Al-Qaeda who had seized large parts of southern Yemen.The killing of Major General Salem Ali Qatan in a suicide bombing in Aden was a reminder that government control of the south remains tenuous, despite a month-long US-backed assault that has driven militants out of all the towns they held.
In a statement posted on Islamist Internet forums on Thursday, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said the attack was a message to the “leaders of the joint American-Yemeni campaign.”
“The message ... consists of the blood and body parts of the martyrdom-seekers who swore to pluck your rotten heads, which agreed to be a vehicle for America in its war against the Muslims in Yemen,” the group said. It did not identify the bomber.