SANAA (AFP) — Al-Qaeda's wing in Yemen has claimed responsibility for an attack it said targeted a refinery in the southern city of Aden, according to an Internet statement posted on Sunday.
The Jund al-Yemen Brigades on Friday fired three rockets at the Aden refinery "used by the tyrant (regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh) to supply fuel to the crusaders in their war on Islam," said the statement posted on an Islamist militant website.
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified, but the group calling itself Jund al-Yemen Brigades has taken credit for other recent attacks against oil targets and Westerners in Yemen, ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Witnesses said the rockets were fired at an oil pipeline linking a refinery and an oil terminal in Aden and exploded without causing damage.
They said security forces launched a major search operation after the attack.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Aden in October 2000 that killed 17 US sailors on the destroyer USS Cole.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
