Yemen Army Sweeps Capital after Deadly Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Yemeni security forces launched a sweep in the capital to find the perpetrators of a deadly attack on the country's defence ministry, sparking clashes that left several armed men killed, officials said.
Officials also said that Friday’s fighting in Sanaa left one member of the special forces dead.
The brazen attack on Thursday, claimed by al-Qaeda's local branch, killed 56 people including at least seven foreigners.
The attack also underscored the ability of fighters to take advantage of the country's instability and tenuous security - even at the headquarters of its military, Al Jazeera reported.
The assault on the ministry involved a suicide car bomb, and the ministry also came under heavy gunfire from nearby houses. Security forces raided several homes in the ministry's vicinity over the next 24 hours, sparking the clashes.
Al-Qaeda gained a major foothold in Yemen's south amid the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted Defence President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Among the dead at the defence ministry complex, which also houses a military hospital, were soldiers and civilians.
Seven were foreigners, according to Yemen's Supreme Security Commission, which issued the casualty figures - two aid workers from Germany, two doctors from Vietnam, two nurses from the Philippines and a nurse from India.
Among the Yemeni civilians killed were a doctor and a senior judge, it said.
