Al-Qaeda claims car bomb attack on Yemen police compound

Jul 27, 2008, 17:08 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - An al-Qaeda wing in Yemen on Sunday claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide car bomb attack on a police compound that killed a policeman and wounded 18 others.

The group, known as 'The Jihad of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - Yemeni Soldiers Brigade,' said in a statement that the attack was carried out in retaliation for the killing of five al-Qaeda members by police forces in Yemen.

The statement, posted on Islamic web sites often used by al-Qaeda, identified the suicide attacker as Ahmad bin Saeed al-Mashjari, alias Abu-Dijana al-Hadhrami.

The attacker rammed an explosive-laden sedan car into the entrance of a police complex in Sayoun of the Hadhramout province, some 900 kilometres south-east of the capital Sana'a.

He drove at high speed and tried to force his way into the compound's central yard. The car blew up after a police guard tried to stop it.

On Saturday, Hadhramout Governor Ahmed Salem al-Khanbashi said evidence gathered by police had indicated al-Qaeda was involved in the attack.

'The same scenario and materials used in previous al-Qaeda attacks were used in this attack,' the governor said.

Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for three recent car bomb attacks in Yemen, including the July 2007 one on a tourist convoy in the central province of Marib that killed eight Spanish tourists.

In September 2006, two al-Qaeda suicide attackers blew up an explosives-laden pickup in the Safer oil refinery in the neighbouring province of Marib. A simultaneous bombing hit an oil exporting port in Hadhramout, killing a security guard and two suicide attackers.

Hadhramout was the scene of a shooting attack on a convoy of Belgian tourists that left two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers dead on January 18. Al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for those attacks.