SANAA, 15 January 2005 — A powerful explosion rocked the offices of an electronic newspaper run by Yemen’s ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party, slightly injuring several editors, party officials said yesterday.
The blast took place last night and was apparently caused by a hand grenade hurled into an apartment housing the offices of the Almotamr.net online newspaper.
Chief Editor of Almotamr.net online Abdullah Al-Hadrami told Arab News the attack left an unspecified number of editors injured and caused damage to the offices of the newspaper.
“We heard gunshots inside our headquarters just before a grenade blew up two meters away from my office,” Al-Hadrami said.
He said the attackers managed to flee but police were investigating. A report posted on Almotamr.net said its staff had received an e-mailed death threat last week from militants.
“We received a long e-mail that included threats,” the report said. “The letter dubbed us infidels and Marxists.”
According to the report, the letter’s author threatened to assassinate Al-Hadrami, his family and the journalists working for him.
The threat followed a report published by the online newspaper alleging that militants loyal to the Al-Eman Islamic University were forming a “military wing” and planning violent riots against the government’s plans to raise fuel prices.
The university, headed by Sheikh Abdul Majid Al-Zindani, a prominent leader of the opposition Islah party, has vehemently denied the report.
Meanwhile, an appeals court will hear today the final arguments in the case of the 2000 bombing of a US Navy destroyer in Yemen. The defense lawyer for the Al-Qaeda militants convicted of the attack had charged during a hearing last week that the convicts were made into “scapegoats” to please the United States.
