Yemen Foils Attacks on Oil Facilities

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Sat, 2006-09-16 03:00

MARIB, Yemen, 16 September 2006 — Four suicide bombers attempted to strike two oil facilities in eastern Yemen with explosives-laden cars yesterday, killing themselves and a security guard.

A top security official in Marib told Arab News at the scene “the attack bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda.”

“No organization other than Al-Qadea could do this. They are undoubtedly Al-Qaeda terrorists,” said the official, who declined to be identified.

The bombers drove their pickup trucks into the two facilities in the southeastern province of Hadhramout and the northeastern province of Marib.

In the Hadhramout attack, a security guard was killed when two pickups sped into the Al-Dhaba oil exporting station on the Arabian Sea. An Interior Ministry statement quoted by the official Saba news agency said the first attack occurred at 5:15 a.m. (0315 GMT) and involved two pickup trucks, one driven by a man wearing a uniform similar to that used by the facility’s workers and the second by a man in military garb.

Security guards fired on both vehicles, detonating their explosives before they could reach the station’s oil storage tanks.

An official at Al-Dhaba station said a “small fire” broke out in an oil tank after one of the two cars exploded. He said the fire was quickly extinguished.

A short time later at 5:50 am, two cars entered the Safir oil refinery in Marib, some 190 km northeast of the capital Sanaa. Hours after the attack, burned-out wrecks of the two vehicles and charred body parts of the two suicide attackers could be seen scattered at the refinery site.

The first vehicle plowed through the main fence about 200 meters from the installation’s main plant. The charred head and legs of one of the attackers were found about 60 meters from the vehicle’s wreckage.

The second vehicle ripped through the inner fence about 20 meters from the plant. The powerful explosion sent wrecks into the plant, but no significant damage was done to the facility’s pipelines or tanks. Explosives experts were seen inspecting the site of the two blasts looking for unexploded devices. Reporters were shown hand grenades that authorities said were inside the car.

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