Yemen security forces foil plot to carry out 10 suicide bombings in Sana’a

Yemeni security forces have foiled a plot to carry out 10 suicide bombings against government buildings in the capital Sana’a, the defense ministry’s news website reported on Monday.

A wave of arrests targeting a suspected al-Qaeda cell held responsible for a May attack that killed more than 100 soldiers in the capital netted the 10 militants charged with carrying out the bombings, the 26sep.net website quoted “informed sources” as saying.

The arrests “foiled 10 terrorist suicide bombings in the capital Sana’a which the group was planning to carry out against several government facilities,” it reported, according to AFP.

Security services have also found the last testament of the May 21 bomber, who was less than 18 years old, 26sep.net added.

National security chief Ali Mohammed al-Ansi said in comments published by the ministry’s 26 September newspaper on Thursday that the security forces had made multiple arrests.

They followed the announcement on June 20 of the arrest of Majed al-Qulaisi, a suspected member of the cell that planned the May attack against troops rehearsing for a military parade.

Ansi vowed to continue the “hunt” for al-Qaeda fighters, saying security forces have carried out a “series of operations against al-Qaeda terrorists” across Yemen.

Last month, Yemeni troops recaptured a string of al-Qaeda bastions across the troubled south and east where the militants had seized control last year.

Separately, Yemen’s state news agency SABA reported that Saudi Arabia plans to reopen its embassy in Sana’a, which was closed after the kidnapping of Abdullah al-Khalidi, Saudi Arabia’ deputy consul in the Yemeni port city of Aden. SABA cited a telephone call between King Abdullah and Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday night in which the Saudi king reportedly said he would soon order the opening of the embassy in the Yemeni capital, according to Reuters.

The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as Islamist fighters, emboldened by political instability in Yemen, went on a rampage in the south of the country.

Hundreds of militants have been on the run since U.S.-backed Yemeni forces drove them out of towns and cities they had seized last year.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is seen by U.S. officials as the most dangerous offshoot of the global militant network.

By Al Arabiya with Agencies
Monday, 02 July 2012

Posted in: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, alqaeda, AQAP, Qaeda, Sana, Yemen, Yemeni