Four killed in Yemen vehicle ambush

SANA'A // Four people were killed and four others wounded yesterday in an attack on an electricity department vehicle in the southern province of Abyan.

According to local sources, attackers on motorbikes blocked the vehicle, which was carrying money to be deposited at the Central Bank branch in Zinjibar, and opened fire, killing a security guard and three electricity company employees.

"The attackers managed to escape without snatching the money because local citizens gathered immediately at the spot of the attack," said Ahmed al Rahwi, the local council director of Ja'ar district.

The attack came a day after eight soldiers were injured when their armoured vehicle overturned after it came under fire from suspected al Qa'eda militants in the city of Lawdar, which was the site of a suspected al Qa'eda ambush that killed 12 soldiers on Friday.

Local and security sources have described the situation in Lawdar as tense after three days of attacks.

"Three helicopters carried yesterday dozens of anti-terrorism forces to Lawdar where the government is preparing for a big operation against the militants," a security official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the media.

The ministers of defence and interior went to Lawdar on Saturday. Mohammed Naser Ahmed, the minister of defence, pledged that "the army will hit with an iron fist on anybody who is sabotaging the stability of the country" while addressing military units in Abyan, according to the state-owned Saba news agency.

The activities of al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula, with whom yesterday's attackers are believed to be affiliated, have increased in recent months. The terror organisation this month claimed responsibility for 50 operations carried out in different parts of Yemen in the last five months of 2010.

It said in a statement that it executed 13 operations against security officers in five Yemeni provinces, six of them in Abyan in which 13 officers and soldiers were killed.

According to the security official, al Qa'eda is using the unemployed and people who are against the government to carry out attacks.

"Through investigations with some of the suspects, we have found that al Qa'eda is using people even if they do not believe in its religious ideology, but with anti-government sentiments," the security official said.

Barack Obama, the US president, on Saturday condemned the suspected al Qa'eda attack on Yemeni soldiers and offered his country's support in battling the group.

John Brennan, Mr Obama's chief counterterrorism aide, called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to convey Mr Obama's "personal condolences" on the deaths of Yemeni security forces.

Mr Brennan said the US president "strongly condemned the brutal attacks, which reflect the group's clear intent to kill Yemenis who are valiantly seeking to stop al Qa'eda's attempts to carry out terrorist attacks in Yemen as well as in other countries," according to a White House statement.

Mr Brennan told Mr Saleh that "the United States is determined to stand with the government and people of Yemen in confronting al Qa'eda and that President Obama is committed to continuing the provision of security, economic, and development assistance to Yemen," the statement said.

malqadhi@thenational.ae