The unidentified gunmen unleashed an armed attacked on the headquarters of military intelligence agency in the Tawahi neighborhood in Aden, triggering a short gunfight with security forces in the city, the local police officer said on condition of anonymity.
"Masked attackers armed with automatic rifles rained the building of the intelligence services with heavy gunshots and random shooting," the police officer said.
"Security reinforcements arrived... the attackers were finally pushed back, leaving one military vehicle in flames," he added.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but security sources accused militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, who have waged a bloody insurgency against the government forces for the past two years.
Last month, an al-Qaida suicide bomber detonated his booby- trapped car near the headquarters of military intelligence agency in Aden, leaving about 19 army soldiers killed and 16 others wounded.
A string of high-level assassinations and suicide bombings struck Yemen's southern regions over the past two months, showing that al-Qaida militants have retained the capacity to attack despite that Yemen's military operations claimed victory in routing them out of their strongholds in the south.
On June 20, Yemen's military officials announced the seizing of al-Qaida's last bastion in the country's troubled south following the army's offensive backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
However, local military and anti-terrorism experts said that the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch is still a major threat to the impoverished Arab country despite being driven out from its main southern bastions by U.S.-backed military assault.
from XINHUA
2012-09-15 06:12:37
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