| Yemen foils Al Qaeda terror plot |
SANAA Yemen has foiled a plot by an Al Qaeda-linked cell to carry out attacks inside the capital Sanaa and seized 40 belts packed with explosives, the mayor said on Wednesday, highlighting the risks posed by Islamist militancy in the impoverished Arab state.
The Defence Ministry said seven militants had also been detained in the southern town of Jaar, where a suicide bomber killed 45 tribal fighters earlier this week and threatened further attacks on a bigger scale.
Yemen declared victory in June over militants calling themselves Ansar Al Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), but they continue to pose a serious threat in a country that borders top oil producer Saudi Arabia, despite losing control over territory they controlled for most of last year.
A local official said the target of the suicide bombing earlier this week - Abdul Latef Sayed, the head of a tribal fighting force - had narrowly escaped death again on Wednesday.
Militants had parked a car loaded with explosives outside his house in Jaar, the official said.
Sayed has now been targeted in two assassination attempts in just four days. The militants say it is revenge for siding with the army during a US-backed military campaign against Islamist fighters in Abyan province. He was wounded in the first attack.
“Whatever happens, we will work to cleanse the city of Jaar of these terrorist elements, whatever the cost,” Sayed said soon after Wednesday’s blast, in which nobody was injured.
Tribal fighters drove away the militants behind the attack, killing one and wounding another, the same local official said.
The seven men arrested in Jaar included a Somali national and a militant leader known as Abu Musaab who was responsible for Al Qaeda’s finances in Abyan, the Defence Ministry said on its website.
Reuters
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