2 killed in coordinated attacks in Yemen

(News Today) - Two security officials were killed and two wounded when gunmen launched coordinated attacks on separate security buildings in southern Yemen on Wednesday, the ruling party Mu'tamar's website said.

The attacks took place in the Abyan province as security forces were queuing for morning marches, local officials told CNN.

One of the buildings is used by Yemeni intelligence agency; the other by police.

It was not immediately known who carried out the attacks, but suspicion fell on insurgents tied to al Qaeda, officials said.

In recent years, the terrorist network appears to have gained a foothold in Yemen, according to analysts familiar with the region.

Washington began eyeing the impoverished desert nation as a possible new haven for al Qaeda as early as 2001, after the group's attacks on New York and Washington triggered the invasion of Afghanistan.

It is the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, whose followers bombed the destroyer USS Cole in a Yemeni port a year before the September 11 attacks.

The government is fighting a four-month battle against a Shiite Muslim uprising in its northwest and faces increasing pressure from a separatist movement in its south.

Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi acknowledged earlier this year that those insurgencies gave al Qaeda space to gain ground within its borders.

Al-Qirbi estimated the strength of the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda at between 200 and 300 fighters.

Source : CNN

Posted in: