(Updates with claim of responsibility, reworked lead and
headline)
By Mohammed Mukhashaf
ADEN, April 6 (Reuters) – Two al Qaeda militants died in
southern Yemen on Friday when a bomb they were carrying on a
motorbike went off prematurely near the headquarters of the
paramilitary police, an official said.
The incident occurred in the Mansoura district of the
southern port city of Aden close to a building where the Central
Security Service is based.
“It blew up as it was getting near the building,” the
security official told Reuters, adding that he thought the dead
men were suicide bombers.
He said one of the men had been identified, adding that the
explosion did not damage the building and that nobody else was
hurt in the blast.
The al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia said in a
statement it was behind the botched attack, saying its two
fighters had been “martyred” after their device exploded by
mistake.
“The mujahideen (holy warriors), may God bless them both,
were on their way to carry out a jihadi operation against a
target linked to the puppet Sanaa regime,” the emailed statement
said.
The group also rejected as “false and ridiculous” a
government report that said military and security forces had
killed more than 100 militants in the past few days.
[IS:nL6E8F5BBS]Al Qaeda-linked militants have often used motorbikes for
armed attacks on military checkpoints in the past, as well as
for some suicide attacks.
Last April, suspected al Qaeda gunmen on motorbikes attacked
a military checkpoint outside Zinjibar, in the flashpoint
southern province of Abyan. A passing shepherd was killed in
that attack, a child wounded, and two soldiers were hurt, a
local official said at the time.
Friday’s incident came a day after authorities beefed up
security at foreign missions and government sites in the capital
Sanaa over warnings of a possible al Qaeda attack.
“We have received information concerning plans by al Qaeda
to move its operations to Sanaa,” a security official told
Reuters. “We believe it is preparing to carry out these
operations using car bombs any time soon.”
Yemen is battling Islamist militants in the south of the
country from Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law).
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in late
February, vowing to fight the militants who had exploited
political turmoil during the rule of his predecessor to make
territorial gains.
Mass protests aimed at ending the 33-year rule of Ali
Abdullah Saleh, long a key figure in Washington’s fight against
al Qaeda, erupted in early 2011.
Washington backed Saleh’s succession under a deal engineered
by top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, which fears chaos in Yemen
could spread across its border.
The majority of attacks have taken place in southern Yemen,
where most of Ansar al-Sharia’s fighters are based. In their
deadliest attack, militants killed at least 110 soldiers and
took dozens hostage on March 4 in Zinjibar.
The government responded with air strikes and the United
States has repeatedly used drones to attack militants.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; Writing by
Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
