Suicide bomber claims leading Yemeni soldier
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.
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Hide AdA 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.