A suicide bomber Sunday detonated a truck packed with explosives at an army camp in Aden, killing nine soldiers, a military source said, amid raging battles between troops and Islamist militants.
The defence ministry blamed Al-Qaeda for the massive blast, which soldiers said tore through military vehicles as they were leaving the army camp. The military source said that nine people were killed and 21 others wounded in the blast, and that some of the wounded were in serious condition, including four who were evacuated by helicopter to the capital Sanaa.
A text message from the defence ministry’s news service received by AFP said that the bomber was from Al-Qaeda, but put the toll at four killed rather than nine. Soldiers told AFP that Sunday’s blast occurred as troops prepared to leave the army camp for Abyan province. A lieutenant colonel was among those killed, according to a medic.
Murderous Qaeda cell in Baghdad smashed
BAGHDAD – Iraqi security forces have smashed an Al-Qaeda network in Iraq allegedly responsible for hundreds of killings in Baghdad, a senior police official told AFP on Sunday. “Interior Ministry forces dismantled (an) Al-Qaeda network that was responsible for more than 100 murders of policemen, soldiers, judges, officials and jewellers in Baghdad,” the official said, asking not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The cell was also behind the May 26 assassination of Ali al-Lami, head of the controversial Justice and Accountability Commission which investigates issues relating to the former regime of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, he added. AFP