An explosion on Wednesday ripped through a Yemeni military vehicle in the south of the country, killing five soldiers, while another four civilians died in the ensuing firefight.
The blast hit the vehicle close to a busy market selling qat, the mildly stimulating leaf that Yemenis addictively chew, in the town of Zinjibar, in a province known as a stronghold for Muslim militants, including al-Qaeda.
“We heard the sound of explosions and saw fire coming out of the car. The soldiers were lying on the ground,” eyewitness Ali Dahmash said.
The panicked surviving soldiers began firing in the air, and were joined by soldiers rushing to the scene. Four civilians in the marketplace were killed by the gunfire, and more than 20 were wounded Dahmash said.
Yemen is home to one of the most active branches al-Qaeda, but military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said they were not sure who the assailants were.
Extremists regularly attack soldiers in the lawless, impoverished country, which is also wracked by pro-democracy demonstrators calling for the ouster of longtime Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands gathered in Yemen’s major cities, as they have for the past months to reiterate their demand that Saleh step down after more than 30 years in power.
More than 140 people have died since the protests began nearly three months ago.
In the southern province of Aden, a general strike shuttered shops, closed schools and halted commercial transport, in the latest efforts to pressure Saleh to leave.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS