Ahmed al-Rammah, who witnessed the blast, said by phone from Mukalla that he saw a pickup moving slowly to the gate as soldiers were coming out. Then it exploded, he said. The explosion was followed by heavy gunfire from the surviving guards.
Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen — A car bomb outside the gate of a presidential compound in southern Yemen killed at least 25 people hours after the country’s new president was formally inaugurated and vowed to fight al-Qaida.
A security official said the attack in the city of Mukalla in Hadramout province was carried out by a suicide bomber, and that it bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida operation. Both al-Qaida and southern separatists are active in the region.
A health official confirmed the death toll. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to speak to the press.
The blast came hours after Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was sworn in as president to replace longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, following an election aimed at ending more than a year of political turmoil in Yemen. Hadi was the only candidate in the election.
In his televised speech before parliament, Hadi vowed to keep up Yemen’s fight against al-Qaida-linked militants, who have taken advantage of the country’s political turmoil to seize control of towns and swaths of territory in the restive south.
Hadi also pledged that thousands of Yemenis who have been forced from their homes because of the fighting among government troops, southern separatists, mutinous military units, tribal fighters, and numerous other factions would be able to return home.
“One of the most prominent tasks is the continuation of war against al-Qaida as a religious and national duty, and to bring back displaced people to their villages and towns,” Hadi said.
Hours after Hadi spoke, the car bomb rocked Mukalla in the province of Hadramout, part of formerly independent south Yemen, which united with the north in 1990.
Ahmed al-Rammah, who witnessed the blast, said by phone from Mukalla that he saw a pickup moving slowly to the gate as soldiers were coming out. Then it exploded, he said. The explosion was followed by heavy gunfire from the surviving guards.