Car bomb targeting military convoy kills 6 in southern Yemen

[News_Editor]

Car bomb targeting military convoy kills 6 in southern Yemen

2011-07-25 00:51:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

ADEN, YEMEN (BNO NEWS) -- At least six people were killed and many others were injured on Sunday after a car bomb was rammed into a military convoy in Yemen's business capital Aden, the Yemen Post reported.

According to military sources, the attack took place near the air force base in Al-Mansoura district when the troops were preparing to go to Abyan province, where the army has been fighting militants for almost two months. At least six people were killed, including soldiers and the attacker.

Almost 20 people were also injured during the attack. Medical sources said that the death toll is likely to rise.

Many soldiers, militants and civilians have been killed in Abyan, while thousands of families have been displaced. Earlier this month, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that an estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the governorates of Aden, Lahj and Abyan.

On late June, six suspected al-Qaeda members of the wanted Aden cell were arrested in the port city of Aden. They were specialists in bomb making and were attempting to carry out terrorist attacks in Aden and other cities when arrested.

Lately, the army with help from tribes has regained control of several areas that were taken over by the militans. In March, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced that the southern Abyan province was an Islamic emirate.

Yemen's opposition accuses President Ali Abdullah Saleh of allowing al-Qaida militants to seize the province in an attempt to show Western countries the risks Yemen would pass through if he leaves power.

Saleh has been in Saudi Arabia since he was wounded along with other government officials in the bomb attack that hit the mosque of the presidential palace in Sanaa on June 3.

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