Suicide Bombing in Yemen's Capital Is Becoming a Disturbing Trend

Reuters
Alexander Abad-Santos 278 Views Jul 11, 2012

Reports out of Yemen say a suicide bombing attack on police cadets in the capital of Sanaa has claimed the lives of at least eight and wounded 15 others, suggesting that Sanaa may be becoming al Qaeda's favorite suicide bombing target. The BBC is reporting that the official number dead is at eight right now and more than 15 were rushed to hospital, after a suicide bomber attacked a Sanaa police academy--reports are mixed on whether or not the bomber was on foot or on a motorcycle.  "We ran to the place and found dozens of cadets covered in blood. Blood was everywhere. The scene was horrific," police chief Fadel Ali says, according to Reuters' Mohammed Ghobari.

That's disturbing on many levels, but it's particularly chilling when you consider the strong anti-government, anti-military message that's being sent when someone kills young, would-be police officers. "No group has said it carried out the attack, but suspicion fell on a local branch of al-Qaeda," reports The BBC.  It wouldn't be a surprise if it was, since al Qaeda and its Arabian Peninsula offshoot, Ansar al-Shari, claimed credit for a suicide bombing attack that killed 90 people during a military parade on May 21. "It's the same kind of tactics that we see al Qaeda using in Iraq, targeting police academies and the military. There is a migration of tactics from al Qaeda in Iraq to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," Theodore Karasik, director of research and development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, told Reuters.

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