Sana’a: A number of figures in Yemen’s top military brass have been questioned by detectives investigating the brazen attack on ministry of defence (MoD) December 5, local newspaper reported.

Al Qaida in Yemen had recently claimed responsibility for the deadly assault on ministry of defence compound that killed at least 52 people, including medics, patients and security guards.

The compound contains headquarter of MoD and a hospital, one of the country’s most prestigious, often visited by prominent politicians, including president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

In a series of revelations about the unfinished investigations, Al Sharea daily reported on Friday that preliminary findings revealed involvement of “a senior military official and a powerful tribal leader” in the attack.

Quoting an anonymous senior military source, who is taking part in the investigation, the paper said the police arrested three of the attackers who admitted that their main target was Hadi, who frequently visits the hospital on Thursday mornings to see his sick older brother, Mohammad.

The source explained that the country’s intelligence agency notified Hadi about a possible bid on his life.

Hadi’s brother, who had been in hospital for three months, narrowly escaped death when his two guards exchanged fire with the attackers. His brother’s grandson was killed in the clashes.

“The men admitted in the investigation that the attack’s target was Hadi. They were indoctrinated. One of them said that all army soldiers were infidels and president Hadi supports infidels and kills believers in Saada,” he said.

The attackers also admitted that they prepared the bomb pickup that was used in the attack in a village northern the capital near the Sana’a airport and they received intensive military training a week before the attack in an informal military camp in the northern province of Al Jawf.

“They said that they were trained by their leader and other familiar and unfamiliar people. A day before the attack, they wore fake explosive belt to prepare to use the real ones.”

The source said that the group’s leader hails from an area near the capital, a member of a big Islamic party, and was enlisted in the army in 2012. The survived militants also admitted that nine “highly-trained” Saudi nationals took part in the assault.

Yemen’s military announced briefly after the attack that 12 militants, most of them Saudis were behind the deadly assaults.

Al Qaida issued a statement saying that only nine of its operatives assaulted the compound.

The investigator said that police found in the attackers’ possession appetite suppressants, blood clotting and mind-alerting drugs.

The investigation showed that a powerful tribal leader and a senior army official were involved in sending the hit men to the compound. And the chief security of the compound’s gates was replaced by an officer loyal to the army official 13 days before the attack.

The paper said that police in the compound spotted three unperturbed men filming the clashes with their smart phones.

The men admitted in the investigation that they have been working as secret agents for the tribal leader since 2008, snooping around the compound and sending updates to the leader through a middle-man who takes massages and doles out their salaries.

“The men were alerted about the attack ahead of time. Two of them from Amran province and the third from Ibb,” the source said.

The newspaper also said that detectives also questioned the commander of the elite Special Forces, commanders of two army brigades, the crew of three BTR vehicles and other security officers tasked to guard the building.

The source said that brigadier general Abd Rabbo Al Qushibi, commander of the Special Forces, was interviewed as his commanded forces arrived four hours after the beginning of the assault and did not come with smoke bombs that could have eased causalities and enabled them to arrest attackers. The elite forces made another mistake when they hastily announced cleaning the compound from militants

The source said: “The Special Forces told the Chief of Staff that it cleared the building from terrorists. But when security forces entered the building, a terrorist tossed a grenade which killed two soldiers.”

The source also said that the three BTR vehicles stationed outside the compound did not play apart in repelling the attack. The crew of two vehicles said that their vehicles were out of order and the third said he did not receive order to take part in the counteroffensive.