Sana’a: Yemen’s ministry of defence has said that the deadly gun and bomb attacks on the ministry’s complex in Sana’a were carried out mainly by Saudi militants.
In a preliminary report submitted to President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the country military’s chief of the general staff said that 12 attackers had taken part in the attack that killed 56 people and injured 215.
According to the report, the attackers arrived at the complex’s entrance in a pick-up and on foot wearing military uniforms. They opened fire on the guards and drove a car laden with a half-tonne of TNT into the complex.
The military complex houses the headquarters of the ministry of defence and a hospital.
The car exploded when it hit a gate before reaching its target. The attackers then spread into the complex and began indiscriminately shooting at hospital’s security guards, doctors, staff and patients.
The report said that all 12 militants were killed in the attack. However, Hadi said in a meeting with the UN special envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar, that the security forces managed to arrest some of the militants.
The report said that it took the government forces nearly 20 hours to clear the building, but did not say which organisation masterminded the attack.
The National TV also broadcast graphic scenes, showing bodies in military attire.
Like with many similar attacks, accusations between rivals followed Thursday’s attack. Media outlets loyal to the forces that opposed the regime of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh lost no time in accusing the former president of aiding the attackers to undermine the transitional period.
“The ousted [president] had repeatedly threatened when he was in power to turn Yemen into another Somalia if he left office,” said Khalid Al Ansi, an activist and a leading figure in anti-Saleh protest that forced former president into relinquishing power in 2012.
“There are indications that Saleh is involved in the attack. He has the tools and abilities to execute such sophisticated attack. He still rules half of the government and he wants to take revenge against the people who forced him to leave office.”
Saleh’s TV, Yemen Today, was the first media establishment that broadcast exclusive footages from the scene. His opponents say that the TV was alerted about the attack beforehand.
“His [Saleh] TV carries interviews with members of Al Qaida and saboteurs of oil and gas pipelines.”
But Al Ansi was forced to apologise to Al Houthi rebels for falsely accusing them of standing behind the attack on the ministry of defence.
However, Saleh’s loyalists similarly responded by pointed fingers of blame to some “radical” groups in the Islamist Islah party.
Wafaq Press, a news site loyal to the former president, quoted an anonymous source as saying that general Ali Mohsin Al Ahmar Al Ahmar, the former commander of the army’s 1st Armed Division, was plotting a military coup against president Hadi.
Ahmad Mahyoub, a member of the website’s editorial board, told Gulf News that the attack did not bear the hallmarks of Al Qaida.
“Al Qaida usually attacks foreign facilities in the country. Military sources told us that Al Ahmar planned the attack,”
Mahyoub said that the local news site made a hasty judgment about each incident as it did not trust the government’s security committees following an attack on government facilities.
“Yemen[’s] media know that these committees will not come up with important information, so they depend on their own source. Each side in the government feeds his affiliated media with information,” he said.
