Yemen says foiled attacks on oil, gas facilities

Sanaa, Sept 15: Yemen confirmed it killed four suicide car bombers, foiling an attempt to blow up two oil and gas facilities today in the independent oil producer and said there was no damage to the facilities.

The state news agency Saba said one security guard was also killed. It said security forces blew up the four cars before they reached their targets.

WAR ON TERRORISM

Yemen, which produces around 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil, is due to hold presidential and municipal elections on Sept 20. The impoverished country has vowed to crack down on attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants and kidnappings of foreigners by disgruntled tribesmen.

The Arab country joined the US-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

On Monday, al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to strike Western interests and stop what he called the theft of Muslim oil by Western countries.

''The strongest way to aid our Muslim brothers ... is to strike the interests of Jews and Crusaders and those who cooperate with them,'' Zawahri said in a video posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants.

''There must be a focus on their economic interests and in particular on stopping the theft of Muslims' plundered petroleum,'' he said.

Militant attacks off the Yemeni coast have included the bombing in 2000 of the US warship Cole and an attack in 2002 on the French supertanker Limburg. In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which has also been battling al Qaeda, suicide attackers tried to storm the world's biggest oil processing plant in Abqaiq in February.

Yemen, on the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has been widely seen in the West as a haven for Muslim militants, including al Qaeda supporters.

Western diplomats say some of the militants are war veterans who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Many are protected by powerful tribal leaders in mountain regions outside the central government's control.

REUTERS