ADEN: A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Shia fighters in northern Yemen yesterday, killing at least three people, officials and local people said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the sources said the attack in al Jawf province bore the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist Al Qaeda militants, who have carried out similar attacks on northern Yemen’s Shia Houthi tribal group in the past.
A Houthi source said the attacker had been heading for a Houthi cultural centre but when stopped at the checkpoint nearby, he detonated the car there. He said two Houthis were killed in the blast.
Al Qaeda militants have a strong presence in Maarib province, next to al Jawf. At least 24 people have been killed this week in fighting between Shi’ite Muslim fighters and the army and allied Sunni tribesmen. Intense sectarian conflict this year has undermined attempts at national reconciliation in Yemen.
The Houthis — who control much of the northern Saada province bordering Saudi Arabia — also blew up a Sunni religious education centre in Omran province in the north on Friday, local sources said.
Gulf Arab states and the United States are worried about violence in Western-allied Yemen, a neighbour of major oil exporter Saudi Arabia and home to one of al Qaeda’s most active wings.
Last month the Yemeni army launched its biggest offensive in nearly two years to try to dislodge al Qaeda militants from southern strongholds, after a wave of attacks on government officials, security forces, foreigners and energy facilities.
TUNIS: A Tunisian soldier was killed and five others wounded yesterday by a mine in the Mount Chaambi region near the Algerian border, the defence ministry said.
Since late 2012, security forces have been battling jihadist militants accused of having links to Al Qaeda who are hiding out in the region, just a few kilometres from the Algerian border.
More than 20 police and troops have been killed in the area, many by improvised bombs and mines, since the beginning of the unrest, including eight soldiers killed in an ambush last July.
“A mine exploded when a military vehicle passed,” killing a senior non-commissioned officer and wounding five other soldiers, two of them seriously, ministry spokesman Taoufik Rahmouni said. Despite the regular use of aerial and artillery in the region, the security forces have failed to track down and eliminate the militants.
“It is impossible to gain 100 per cent control over an area of this terrain and this size,” Rahmouni said.AFP
