SANAA, 11 August 2007 — A manhunt was under way in Yemen yesterday to track down an armed gang that struck government targets in the restive region of Marib the day after four Al-Qaeda suspects were killed by police.
“Those that carried out these operations are wanted security suspects and an investigation is under way to capture them,” an Interior Ministry source told AFP, without giving further details.
In a series of pre-dawn raids on Thursday, gunmen attacked police checkpoints, a government building and an electricity sub-station in the area which lies about 150 km east of the capital Sanaa, witnesses said. Nobody was killed or injured, the ministry source said.
Four Al-Qaeda militants killed the day before in a clash with police were responsible for a suicide bombing that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemeni drivers in Marib on July 2, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
One soldier was killed and another injured in the clash, the ministry added.
The ministry also accused the slain militants of involvement in an abortive twin attack in September 2006 on an oil refinery in Marib, and petrol storage tanks at the Dhabba terminal operated by the Canadian firm Nexen in the southeastern Hadramaut province.
