Last December – amid reports of Al Qaeda setting up strongholds in Syria in Iraq – terrorists affiliated with the international terrorist organization attacked Yemen’s defense ministry, killing over 50 people and wounding more than 160.
The head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Nasser al-Wuhayshi, had recently been named the group’s “general manager,” taking his place as effectively the second-in-command behind leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Wuhayshi had taken to routinely launching brazen attacks against Yemeni military installations in the south, including an attack on a base that killed 40 people.
“A terrorist group attacked the central prison,” an Interior Ministry official said, according to comments published by the state news agency, adding there had been a car bomb followed by a gun attack on the facility… Eleven people were killed, a security source said. The Interior Ministry official said seven guards were killed and four wounded, while 29 inmates, including 19 jailed for terrorism-related crimes, escaped in the chaos.
No one has taken responsibility for the attack yet, but it bears the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda-style attack. A similar, albeit much larger, jail break was staged by the group in Iraq last July.
Violence in Yemen has been ebbing and flowing for months. In addition to the threat from Al Qaeda, centered out of the country’s south, Yemen’s north is the site of both an Iranian-backed secessionist movement and a Salafi insurgency. Early December saw a wave of sectarian attacks and counterattacks, including a round that saw 120 people killed in the country’s north.
Efforts to politically stabilize Yemen since the Arab Spring ouster of former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh have been halting. A Conference of National Dialogue, sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and geared toward bolstering the country’s institutions, failed last month to secure a roadmap to new elections. Saleh himself seems determined to return to power.
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