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Al-Qaida attacks Yemeni republican guard patrol, one killed

27 April 2012 02:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A Yemeni soldier was killed and several others were wounded on Thursday in a fresh attack by al- Qaida militants in the southern province of al-Bayda, a local security official said, APA reports.

The attack targeted a patrol of the republican guards in al- Bayda’s biggest city of Radda, about 130 km southeast of the capital Sanaa, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The defense ministry confirmed the attack in a statement posted on its website, saying that a group of republican guards were attacked while they were on a routine patrol inside Radda.

"It is a terrorist act. One of the attackers was arrested," the statement said.

Radda, home to nearly 60,000 people, fell into the hands of some 1,000 militants of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP) in January. The terrorist group quit the city after the Yemeni government promised to release its jailed members.

Al-Bayda province is the ancestral home of AQAP leader Nasir al- Wuhayshi, who was late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s personal secretary in Afghanistan. Al-Wuhayshi escaped along with about 25 prisoners from Sanaa’s intelligence prison in 2006 and formed the regional terrorist network of AQAP that controls several cities in Yemen’s southern regions.