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Al-Qaida claims killing 6 soldiers guarding Austrian oil company in S. Yemen

08 August 2010 03:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Yemeni-based al-Qaida regional wing claimed responsibility for killing six Yemeni soldiers guarding an Austrian oil company on Saturday, according to a communique issued on jihadist forums, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

The al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in the communique that "the Sheikh Mohammed Omair al-Awlaqi’s Martyr Brigades set an ambush on July 25 against a security patrol (guarding the Austrian oil company), killing a security officer along with five other soldiers of the Central Security Forces in Ataq, the capital city of Shabwa."

The al-Qaida’s communique also said that they seized four AK-47 rifles of the security patrol as all the assailants returned unharmed to their militant base.

The attack, which police officials said the militants were trying to raid the western oil company, came amid a series of deadly attacks by the resurgent group on local security facilities and western interests in the country’s south during the past two months.

On July 25, a security official in Ataq told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that a group of al-Qaida gunmen raided the Yemeni security guards of an Austrian oil company located at al- Akla area in the southeast of Ataq, Shabwa.

"Nearly ten terrorists wearing Afghani-style clothes who were equipped with heavy machine guns on a vehicle approached the wall of the Austrian oil company, killing at least six security soldiers and wounding dozens of others," the official said.

"The security guards, however, fired back and engaged in a fierce clash with the gunmen, which forced the latter to retreat," he said, adding that "a military brigade nearby heard the sounds of shootings and rushed to the scene."

"The attack hurt no staff of the foreign oil company and caused no damage to the company," said the official.

He said the security and back-up military troops then ran after the terrorist gunmen and managed to damage their vehicle while the latter were trying to flee.

On July 14, al-Qaida group said it was behind the twin raids on the general security and intelligence buildings in the southern province of Abyan, which killed at least three soldiers and an al- Qaida assailant.

On June 19, militants raided the intelligence headquarters in the southern port city of Aden, al-Qaida later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it killed at least 24 people.

The Yemeni government has intensified security operations and air raids against terrorist groups, after the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for a failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger plane bound for Detroit last year.