Four suspected al-Qaeda gunmen blasted their way into the intelligence headquarters of Yemen’s second-largest city and freed several detainees in the group’s most spectacular operation since a US-backed government crackdown began late last year.
The attack on Saturday on the heavily protected security complex killed 11 and further bolstered US concerns that Yemen’s weak central government may not be up to tackling an increasingly effective foe seemingly able to strike anywhere inside or outside the country.
“We were hit where we least expected it,” Yemeni Information Minister Hassan al-Lozy told the al-Arabiya news channel. “This is a serious escalation from these terrorist elements.”
US officials say insurgents, including Americans, are training in militant camps in Yemen’s vast lawless spaces and allying with powerful tribes opposed to the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Those concerns deepened last December, when al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
In the wake of the Christmas attack, with US aid, training and intelligence, Yemen’s military and air force have struck repeatedly at al-Qaeda sites and suspected hideouts, and arrested several suspects.
In a statement, the Yemeni government said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and resulted in the death of seven members of the security forces, three women and a child in the southern port city of Aden, about 320km south of the capital.
The fact that one of the most important security institutions in the country’s second-largest city could be attacked reflects the state’s weakness, said analyst Mansour Hael, hinting that the attackers must have had inside help.
“The question to ask is how these attackers were able to infiltrate such a fortified security area. This raises a number of suspicions,” he said.
The headquarters of the powerful intelligence agency is located in an upscale neighborhood of government offices overlooking the sea, flanked by the state television building and a branch of the Transport Ministry.
It was the same facility that 10 prisoners broke out of in 2003, including one involved in the plot to blow up the USS Cole in 2000, that killed 17 American sailors.
An eyewitness said the gunmen in military uniforms approached the building after parking their old sedan and a microbus at the nearby historic Crescent Hotel. The witness, who works in the building but was outside at the time of the attack, said the gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades and threw hand grenades at the building’s entrance before charging inside in a hail of bullets.
In the course of the half-hour fire fight, the witness said a number of the guards threw down their weapons and fled and the attackers managed to escape with several detainees, leaving the building on fire. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Yemen’s security officials did not comment on whether any detainees were freed, only saying that nine people were injured in the attack and eight others have been detained for their suspected involvement.
Saturday’s attack follows a military campaign in eastern Yemen against suspected al-Qaeda hideouts, which prompted the movement to issue a statement on militant Web sites on Friday threatening to “set the ground on fire under the tyrants of infidelity in [President] Saleh’s regime and his US collaborators.”
An earlier statement by the local branch of al-Qaeda also urged its supporters to free the group’s members held in prisons around the region.
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