By DPA,
Sanaa : An Al Qaeda wing in Yemen has claimed responsibility for Friday’s suicide car bomb attack on a police compound that killed a policeman and wounded 18 others.
The group, known as “The Jihad of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – Yemeni Soldiers Brigade”, said in a statement Sunday that the attack was carried out in retaliation for the killing of five Al Qaeda members by police forces in Yemen.
The statement, posted on Islamic web sites often used by Al Qaeda, identified the suicide attacker as Ahmad bin Saeed al-Mashjari, alias Abu-Dijana al-Hadhrami.
The attacker rammed an explosive-laden sedan car into the entrance of a police complex in Sayoun of the Hadhramout province, some 900 km southeast of the capital Sanaa.
On Saturday, Hadhramout Governor Ahmed Salem al-Khanbashi said evidence gathered by the police had indicated Al Qaeda was involved in the attack.
“The same scenario and materials used in previous Al Qaeda attacks were used in this attack,” the governor said.
The terror outfit has claimed responsibility for three recent car bomb attacks in Yemen, including the July 2007 one on a tourist convoy in the central province of Marib that killed eight Spanish tourists.
In September 2006, two Al Qaeda suicide attackers blew up an explosives-laden pickup in the Safer oil refinery in the neighbouring province of Marib. A simultaneous bombing hit an oil exporting port in Hadhramout, killing a security guard and two suicide attackers.
Hadhramout was the scene of a shooting attack on a convoy of Belgian tourists that left two Belgian women and two Yemeni drivers dead Jan 18. Al Qaeda also claimed responsibility for those attacks.