Bomb Attacks Hit Intelligence, Two Killed

Sana'a, Sept. 15 (ANTARAriau News) - Three loud blasts hit intelligence headquarters and a police station in Yemen's southern port city of Aden midnight Wednesday, leaving one soldier and one passerby killed, and 13 others injured, local officials and residents told Xinhua.

A local security official, who asked not to be named, said that three bomb attacks hit the local military intelligence headquarters and police station in al-Mansoura and al-Mualla districts, killing at least one soldier.

"The first blast at the police station of al-Mualla was caused by two stun grenades at the gate of the building," the official said, adding that "the blasts bear the hallmarks of al-Qiada in the Arabian Peninsula."

Police forces fired back following the explosions and a passerby was accidentally shot dead, residents said.

Another provincial official told Xinhua that "two blasts hit the intelligence headquarters and another blast rocked the police station 10 minutes later, leaving up to 13 security soldiers slightly injured."

The blasts came just hours after the authorities approved at a meeting tightened security measures across Aden to prevent any infiltration by al-Qaida militants from the neighboring province of Abyan, according to local government sources.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has vowed to avenge the recent Yemeni-U.S. joint military air strikes on their hideouts in Zinjibar and Jaar cities of Abyan province and Rawda town of Shabwa province, and to move guerrilla warfare into Aden and other provinces.

Several huge explosions rocked Yemen's capital early Thursday, as heavy gunfire was exchanged between forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition rebels, security officials and residents told Xinhua.

"Mortar shells and heavy shoot-out rang out near the headquarters of the Interior Ministry in volatile Hassaba district in downtown Sanaa," an official of the Interior Ministry told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, many residents said that "a string of explosions were heard in the 60th Street near the defected military base and the residential compound of Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the western part of Sana'a."

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