SANAA: A Yemeni police chief in the capital narrowly escaped an assassination attempt yesterday as explosives planted in his car blew up just minutes after he exited the vehicle, he told AFP.
Saleh Al-Mustafa, police chief for Sanaa’s western Mathbah neighborhood, said he suspects Al-Qaeda militants were behind the attack.
“Thank God I wasn’t there (in the car) or I would have been a victim just like our colleague,” said Mustafa, referring to the assassination of intelligence officer Mohammed Al-Qudami who was killed by a car bomb on Monday.
“Of course, this (type of attack) bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda,” he said, adding that the militants were “targeting security officials across the board.”
According to Mustafa, Al-Qaeda militants “have a presence” in Sanaa’s Mathbah neighborhood and security forces have “been trailing them ... but they targeted us before we were able to capture them.”
On Monday, Qudami was killed when a bomb strapped under the driver’s seat of his car exploded.
He died in hospital from wounds sustained in the blast which according to a security official took place “just a few meters from President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s house” in the capital.
No group has claimed responsibility for either bombing, but the defense ministry late Tuesday announced it had made an arrest for Qudami’s assassination.
In a statement on their 26 September website, the ministry said the suspect was arrested after being found wearing “black glasses mounted with a video camera that filmed the assassination of the officer.”
Separately, a suspected US drone strike has killed two Al-Qaeda militants in a car in Yemen's south, a Yemeni official said.
Yemen's military has been on a weeks-long offensive to uproot Al-Qaeda from strongholds captured during Yemen's yearlong internal political turmoil.
The US has been helping, as it considers Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch to be group's most dangerous.
The official that the two militants were known for ties to Al-Qaeda and provided shelter for militants. Tribal officials there said four militants were killed.
Sanaa police chief escapes assassination
