MANAMA: Five people, including a woman who used a pillow to pretend she was pregnant, were sentenced to five years in jail yesterday for plotting to disrupt the 2013 Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix by planting a bomb at the circuit, state news agency BNA said.
It said policewomen foiled the scheme when they searched the woman and found her disguise while she was on a trial run for smuggling a home-made bomb in on the day of the race in April last year. The agency did not name the five but said they had confessed to the plot. The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights identified the two women as activists Nafisa Al Asfoor, 31, and Rayhana Al Musawi, 38. It said they were detained during a protest near the circuit and had complained of being tortured.
Qaeda militants kill 15 Yemeni soldiers
ADEN: Suspected Al Qaeda militants killed 15 Yemeni soldiers in an ambush as the army launched a ground offensive against their remaining strongholds in the south, medical and security sources said. Twelve militants were also killed when the ambush in Shabwa province sparked a firefight, tribal sources said. Ten soldiers were also wounded and 15 captured.
The ground offensive, which was launched just hours before the opening of a donors’ conference in London, seeks to capitalise on Al Qaeda losses in a blistering US-backed air offensive last week in which nearly 60 militants were killed.agencies
