Saudi Arabia launches attach with “terrorist groups” to destabilise Yemen, Region

Yemen says Saudis behind attack
6 December, 2013 – By AHMED AL-HAJ – Associated Press

ADEN, Yemen (AP) – Saudi militants were behind the massive car bombing and assault on Yemen’s military headquarters that killed more than 50 people, including foreigners, investigators said in a preliminary report released Friday. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retaliation for U.S. drone strikes that have killed dozens of the terror network’s leaders.

The attack – the deadliest in Sanaa since May 2012 – marked an escalation in the terror network’s battle to undermine the U.S.-allied government and destabilize the impoverished Arab nation despite the drone strikes and a series of U.S.-backed military offensive against it. U.S. forces also have been training and arming Yemeni special forces, and exchanging intelligence with the central government.

Military investigators described a two-stage operation, saying heavily armed militants wearing army uniforms first blew up a car packed with 500 kilograms (more than 1,100 pounds) of explosives near an entrance gate, then split into groups that swept through a military hospital and a laboratory, shooting at soldiers, doctors, nurses, doctors and patients.

Officials earlier said 11 militants were killed, including the suicide bomber who drove the car. It was not clear if the 12th attacker was captured or escaped.

The investigative committee led by Yemen’s Chief of Staff Gen. Ahmed al-Ashwal, said militants shot the guards outside the gates of the military hospital, allowing the suicide bomber to drive the car inside, but a gunfight forced him to detonate his explosives before reaching his target. It said the 12 militants killed, included Saudis.

Two military officials told The Associated Press that wounded soldiers had told them the assailants who stormed the hospital separated out the foreigners and shot everybody in the head.

Other military officials said American security agents were helping with the investigations, but that could not be confirmed. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to brief reporters.

Yemeni commandos and other security forces besieged the militants before they could reach the ministry’s main building, preventing them from going further than the ministry’s entrance gate. All the attackers were killed by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the committee.

Yemeni security forces launched a manhunt in the capital to find the perpetrators, sparking gunbattles that killed five suspected militants and a Yemeni commando, officials said. …more