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| Terror Networks |
| Qaeda bomber behind Yemen attack trained in Somalia |
| 2009-03-19 |
| A suicide bomber behind a deadly attack that killed four South Korean tourists in Yemen was trained in lawless Somalia, just across the busy Gulf of Aden shipping route, a Yemeni security official said on Tuesday. The bombing, which is likely to further damage the impoverished country's nascent tourism sector, came after repeated calls by al Qaeda leaders for attacks on non-Muslim foreigners in the Arabian Peninsula. Violence in Yemen has affected foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector, while attacks on foreigners -- including kidnappings by tribesmen -- have hit tourism, diplomats say. Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has for years been battling al Qaeda and similar groups, but no group has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack. The official said Aajbari had trained in Somalia, a failed Horn of Africa country that Western security services fear in could be a base for al Qaeda-linked militants. He identified the bomber as Abdel Rahman Mehdi al-Aajbari, who left his family home in the Yemeni province of Taizz around two months ago. In a letter to his mother delivered by one of his fellow fighters, Aajbari wrote that his family would never see him again and that he believed he was on the "true path," the official said. |
| Posted by:ed |