Sana'a, Yemen - An al-Qaeda wing in Yemen on Sunday claimed
responsibility for Friday's suicide car bomb attack on a police
compound that killed a policeman and wounded 18 others.
The group, known as 'The Jihad of al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula - Yemeni Soldiers Brigade,' said in a statement that the
attack was carried out in retaliation for the killing of five
al-Qaeda members by police forces in Yemen.
The statement, posted on Islamic web sites often used by al-Qaeda,
identified the suicide attacker as Ahmad bin Saeed al-Mashjari, alias
Abu-Dijana al-Hadhrami.
The attacker rammed an explosive-laden sedan car into the entrance
of a police complex in Sayoun of the Hadhramout province, some 900
kilometres south-east of the capital Sana'a.
He drove at high speed and tried to force his way into the
compound's central yard. The car blew up after a police guard tried
to stop it.
On Saturday, Hadhramout Governor Ahmed Salem al-Khanbashi said
evidence gathered by police had indicated al-Qaeda was involved in
the attack.
'The same scenario and materials used in previous al-Qaeda attacks
were used in this attack,' the governor said.
Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for three recent car bomb
attacks in Yemen, including the July 2007 one on a tourist convoy
in the central province of Marib that killed eight Spanish tourists.
In September 2006, two al-Qaeda suicide attackers blew up an
explosives-laden pickup in the Safer oil refinery in the neighbouring
province of Marib. A simultaneous bombing hit an oil exporting port
in Hadhramout, killing a security guard and two suicide attackers.
Hadhramout was the scene of a shooting attack on a convoy of
Belgian tourists that left two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers
dead on January 18. Al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for those
attacks.
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