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Sana'a: Three people were killed and 18 others injured yesterday morning when a suicide car bomber believed to be Al Qaida member exploded his car bomb at the gate of the central security camp at Sayoun city, in Hadhramout province, in eastern Yemen.
Two guards and the bomber were killed immediately, and 11 soldiers were injured, two of them seriously. Eight women were injured in about 10 houses that were damaged in the explosion, at Al Qarn.
Salem Al Khumbashi, governor of Hadhramout, said it was a terrorist attack and the investigators have identified the bomber but declined to reveal it for the "confidentiality of investigations".
"It was criminal and terrorist and we will hunt down those behind it and arrest them and bring them to justice," the governor told reporters.
Terror links
Official statements, however, avoided pointing the finger directly at Al Qaida, which has claimed several attacks in the same area from 2007, including two failed attacks at the same security camp.
A local security analyst, who worked as a senior intelligence official in the same area, said: "Al Qaida is often used and exploited to serve other political interests inside or out side Yemen. I do not [deny] that Al Qaida was behind this bombing. But every country has its own Al Qaida. The illiteracy and ignorance of Al Qaida elements for modern development is politically used."
Al Qaida is difficult to be caught but it is easy to be used by others, knowingly or unknowingly, said the analyst, who asked not to be named.
"It is a message from those behind ... Al Qaida to the state and the citizens and the investors that the state is unable to protect even its soldiers," he said.
A government statement said that the car, a KIA model, approached the gate very fast before exploding itself. The analyst, whose house is a kilometre from the site of attack, said the car stopped about 3m from the gate.
"The driver tried to negotiate with the guards to get in for some purpose. When he failed to convince them, he came back to the car and drove towards the gate and blew it off, killing the two guards and himself," the analyst said.
"Glasses of windows of some houses, 500m far, were broken," said a witness.
Abdullah Mukarem, a journalist, said that the drug dealers were behind the explosion.
"The area is a meeting point of smugglers of drugs from Afghanistan, who arrive first at the coast of Al Mahra, then drive to the deserts of Hadhramout, from which they go the Gulf countries," he said. "They targeted the security camp in particular because they feel it's their big enemy in previous crackdown."
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