Tuesday, May 22, 2012

YEMEN - Parade Bomb Update

"Yemen Says Soldier Carried Parade Suicide Bomb" by Mohammed Hatem, Bloomberg 5/22/2012

Excerpt

The suicide bomber who killed more than 90 people during the rehearsal of a Yemeni military parade yesterday was a soldier, a senior official said today after the country’s president attended a Unification Day procession shielded by bullet-proof glass.

The bomber was a member of Yemen’s central security forces, Ali Mohammed al-Anisi, national security chief, told reporters after today’s celebration. Central security forces are a police unit whose second-in-command is the nephew of the country’s ex- president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Al-Anisi declined to give further details on the bomber, saying only that a committee chaired by President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi will investigate the attack.

Today’s parade was moved to the aeronautics college and was restricted to students of military colleges. Hadi appeared behind bullet-proof glass during the event, attended by senior government and military officials as well as diplomats. The president pledged yesterday to continue the fight against al- Qaeda, whose Yemeni affiliate claimed responsibility for the bombing in an e-mailed statement, saying its target was Defense Minister Mohammed Naser Ahmed.

The minister and Chief of Staff Ahmed al-Ashwal both escaped uninjured, the Defense Ministry said on its website. It said the bombing near the presidential palace in Yemen’s capital also wounded about 220 people.

Yemen’s army has been battling militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the government fights to recapture cities in the southern province of Abyan. Government forces and allied fighters forced al-Qaeda militants to flee the suburbs outside the city of Lawdar on May 17.

Joy ‘Into Sorrow’

The perpetrators “wanted to turn the joy of our people with the Unification Day into sorrow,” President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi said in a speech to the nation. “The war on terrorism will continue until it is uprooted and defeated completely, whatever the sacrifices.”

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