Four suspected al-Qaeda gunmen blasted their way into the intelligence headquarters of Yemen's second largest city yesterday, killing 11 people and managing to free several detainees. An eyewitness said the gunmen in military uniforms fired rocket-propelled grenades and threw hand grenades at the building's entrance before charging inside in a hail of bullets. In the course of the half-hour fire fight, said the witness, a number of the guards threw down their weapons and fled.
The attack on the heavily protected security complex in an upscale neighborhood of government offices in Aden further bolstered US concerns that Yemen's weak central government may not be up to tackling an increasingly effective foe. "We were hit where we least expected it," Yemeni Information's minister told the Al-Arabiya news channel. "This is a serious escalation from these terrorist elements." US officials say insurgents, including Americans, are training in militant camps in Yemen's vast lawless spaces and allying with powerful tribes opposed to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(More Yemen stories.)
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