AQAP launches complex suicide assault on Yemeni Army base

By Bill Roggio - October 19, 2012 - LWJ

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula mounted a complex attack, which included suicide bombers and an assault from the sea, against a Yemeni Army base in Shaqra in the south of the country today.

map by Evan Centanni (www.polgeonow.com)

AQAP launched the first wave of the attack on the headquarters of the 115th Infantry Brigade at dawn. At least four AQAP fighters dressed in military uniforms, armed with assault rifles and suicide vests, drove a pickup truck bearing military license plates through several checkpoints. Three of the fighters then dismounted the truck and opened fire on Yemeni troops, while the driver of the truck drove into a group of soldiers and detonated the explosives-packed vehicle. Another group of AQAP fighters then launched an assault on the base from the sea but was beaten back by Yemeni troops.

Fourteen Yemeni soldiers, including the brigade's operations officer and two staff colonels, were killed during the fighting and in the blasts;12 AQAP fighters were also killed during the assault.

From May 2011 until May of this year, when the Yemeni military, backed by US air and intelligence assets, began retaking control of the south, AQAP controlled Shaqra and many other cities and towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces. AQAP and the Yemeni military fought pitched battles in these provinces before AQAP withdrew its forces and regrouped in areas such as Jaar and Al Mahfad.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/aqap_launches_comple.php#ixzz29peituL9

Posted in: Abyan Governorate, al Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, Shabwah Governorate, Yemeni