Yemen militants kill 11 during attack on intelligence building

Al-Qaida suspected in raid to free detainees in Aden that left seven government agents and four civilians dead

• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk,
• Sunday 20 June 2010 10.45 BST
• Article history

Smoke rises from the intelligence building compound in Aden after an attack by gunmen. Photograph: Reuters

Four suspected al-Qaida gunmen shot their way into the intelligence headquarters of Yemen's second largest city and freed several detainees in the group's most spectacular operation since a US-backed government crackdown began late last year.

The attack yesterday on the heavily protected security complex killed 11 and raised concerns over the ability of Yemen's weak central government to deal with militants.

"We were hit where we least expected it," the Yemeni information minister, Hassan al-Lozy, told the Al-Arabiya news channel. "This is a serious escalation from these terrorist elements."

US officials say insurgents, including Americans, are training in camps in Yemen's vast lawless spaces and allying with powerful tribes opposed to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Those concerns deepened last December, when al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.

Since the Christmas attack, Yemen's military and air force, with US aid, training and intelligence, have struck repeatedly at al-Qaida sites and suspected hideouts, and arrested several suspects.

The Yemeni government said the attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida and resulted in the death of seven members of the security forces, three women and a child in the southern port city of Aden, about 200 miles south of the capital, Sana'a.

The headquarters of the powerful intelligence agency is located in a neighbourhood of government offices overlooking the sea, flanked by the state television building and a branch of the transport ministry.

Ten prisoners broke out of the same facility in 2003, including one involved in the plot to blow up the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 American sailors.

A witness said the gunmen, in military uniforms, approached the building after parking their old sedan and a minibus at the nearby historic Crescent hotel. The witness said they fired rocket-propelled grenades and threw hand grenades at the building's entrance before charging inside.

In the course of the half hour fight, said the witness, a number of the guards threw down their weapons and fled. The attackers escaped with several detainees, leaving the building on fire.

There have been several other al-Qaida prison breaks, including one in 2006 when 23 top al-Qaida members tunnelled their way out of a prison.

In 2009, the organisation merged with the Saudi branch of al-Qaida and dramatically increased the pace of its attacks, including an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the British ambassador in April