Three Qaeda men, two soldiers dead in Yemen

SANAA: A security official says Al-Qaeda gunmen attacked a military position in a southern province, touching off fighting that left three militants and two soldiers dead. The official said the Friday attack in the mountainous Al-Thalib region in the militant stronghold of Al-Bayda province was repulsed, and nearby army positions responded with heavy artillery shelling. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity according to regulations, said the attack was part of an al-Qaida bid to take positions near Radda, the province capital, which the militants briefly occupied last year but were driven out by government forces.

Al-Qaeda overran much of the south in 2011, taking advantage of the turmoil caused by a popular uprising. The army supported by US military experts pushed them back, but clashes continue.

Attackers blew up Yemen’s main oil export pipeline yesterday, halting the flow of crude, the government and industry sources said. “Subversive elements” in Serwah in central Maarib province had blown up the pipeline, which leads to the Red Sea, at dawn yesterday, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Arabian Peninsula state, which relies on crude exports to replenish its reserves and finance up to 70 percent of budget spending, has suffered frequent bombings of its main oil pipeline since an uprising broke out in 2011.

Sabotage of oil pipelines and transmission towers in Maarib had increased dramatically in recent days, the ministry said. The pipeline had been pumping around 125,000 barrels per day (bpd), an industry source told Reuters. Yemen’s stability is a priority for the United States and its Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes, and because is home to one of Al-Qaeda’s most active wings.