Suicide bomber claims leading Yemeni soldier

The commander of military forces in the south of Yemen was killed by a suicide bomber in the port city of Aden yesterday, days after troops drove Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda from their southern strongholds.

The defence ministry said a suicide bomber hurled himself at Major General Salem Ali Qatan’s vehicle, also killing two soldiers escorting him.

It identified the bomber as a Somali but provided no other details.

Pools of blood coated the street where the bomber struck.

A doctor at the hospital where Qatan died said 12 other people, nine of them soldiers, were wounded in the attack in Aden, a port city overlooking oil shipping lanes fewer than 100 miles from several cities which Islamists flying al-Qaeda’s banner recently controlled.

Most of that territory is in Abyan province, where fighters calling themselves Ansar al- Sharia seized towns last year, taking advantage of protests against the three-decade rule of then president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Qatan was a central figure in plans to restructure Yemen’s military, which split into warring factions during the struggle over Saleh’s fate.