Oil pipeline blown up in southeast Yemen
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E-mail Xinhua, April 3, 2012
An oil pipeline transporting crude from Yemen's central Marib province to an export terminal in the southeastern province of Shabwa was blown up on Monday night, cutting flows of Yemen's main pipeline, a security official told Xinhua.
"The crude oil pipeline in Mafrak al-Saeed district in Shabwa province was blown up at 10:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) by suspected al- Qaida militants," the local official told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.
"A huge blaze could be seen until now since the explosion took place one hour ago," the official added.
The al-Qaida wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was in retaliation for U.S. air strikes in the southern city of Azzan.
"Mujahedeen (holy warriors) blew up an oil pipeline at Mafrak al-Saeed district in the southeast province of Shabwa on Monday night, in retaliation for recent U.S. air raids in Azzan," the terrorist group said in a statement obtained by Xinhua.
It was the second bomb blast targeting Yemen's pipelines in less than four days, after the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for bombing a gas pipeline in Shabwa on March 30.
Yemen's economy is dependent on oil production, with oil export accounting for about 63 percent of the impoverished country's budget.
Yemeni government officials said the air raid on Friday killed at least seven al-Qaida operatives in Azzan, a city seized by the militants in October 2011.
The Yemen-based regional network of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), known locally as Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) has controlled swaths in the south and east of the impoverished Arab country since early 2011, exploiting a security vacuum resulted from one year of protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemeni Defense Minister Mohammad Naser Ahmed said Sunday at the Yemeni parliament that splits within the armed forces led to the failure in combating with al-Qaida militants.
An official from the Yemeni Special Operation Forces in Sanaa told Xinhua that a Marine Brigade was mobilized to secure gas and oil pipelines in Shabwa hours after the AQAP blew up a gas pipeline on Friday night.
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