Car bomb hits Yemen’s Defense Ministry, killing 18
Bloomberg News
SANAA, Yemen — An attack on a hospital at Yemen’s Defense Ministry Thursday left at least 52 people dead, the country’s top security body said.
A car bomb exploded at the hospital and armed men also attempted to storm the complex, according to the ministry. At least 167 people were also injured, and nine of those are in a critical condition, while the dead included doctors and nurses from Germany, Vietnam and the Philippines, the Supreme Security Committee said, according to the official Saba news agency.
Troops prevented gunmen from seizing the hospital, killing most of the attackers and pursuing two who had fled into a nearby building, the Defense Ministry said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi ordered an investigation and the release of findings within 24 hours.
Security in Sanaa has deteriorated since popular unrest pushed President Ali Abdullah Saleh from office in 2011. Dozens of intelligence and security officials have been assassinated while al-Qaida continues to attack government targets. The escalation of violence raises concerns that Saudi Arabia’s southern neighbor could disintegrate into a failed state like Somalia or be plunged into civil war.
With rugged terrain and remote mountain villages where the government has little-to-no control, Yemen is already a haven for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which includes Saudi militants who fled a government crackdown starting in 2004.
“There is a weak government that can’t rule a country like Yemen,” Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva, said in a phone interview Thursday.
Yemen-based militants have also targeted Saudi Arabia and the United States. Al-Qaida said an assassination attempt against Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, now the Saudi interior minister, in August 2009 was planned in Yemen. Attacks against the U.S. have also been planned there, including an attempt to parcel-bomb American synagogues.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who confirmed the death of two Germans in the attack, said in an emailed statement that Yemen can’t be allowed to become a “den of terrorism.”
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. negotiated an end to 11 months of protests in Yemen two years ago and led a push for donors to provide $6.4 billion in aid to the poorest country in the Middle East. That included a pledge of $3.3 billion from Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy.
Now, the U.S. and regional ally Saudi Arabia are “far less interested in Yemen” as they grapple with the civil war in Syria and political instability in Egypt, Alani said. “The problem is that the instability in Yemen will spill over sooner or later. This neglect is very dangerous.”
Foreign nationals in Yemen are increasingly being targeted. Last month, a Russian man was shot dead and three people were wounded in Yemen’s capital, al-Arabiya reported. In July, gunmen abducted a Dutch couple working as freelance reporters and teachers from the capital’s streets. The two, who have lived in Yemen since 2011, are still being held.
The government on Oct. 26 started a campaign to tighten security in the capital and other cities by adding checkpoints and putting more troops on the streets.