Bombings in Yemen Kill 4

Posted March 3rd, 2012 at 8:05 pm (UTC-5)
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Two separate bombings in Yemen have killed at least four people, including two suicide bombers.

Yemeni authorities said that, in the first incident Saturday, two suicide bombers drove a truck into a Republican Guard camp in the town of Bayda, killing one soldier and wounding five others. A local official blamed al-Qaida for the attack.

Hours later, two explosions rocked the southern port city of Mukalla, killing another soldier. Local authorities said the blasts were aimed at a central security force building.

The blasts came a week after another suicide car bombing killed 26 people outside a presidential palace in Mukalla, just hours after longtime vice president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sworn in as the country's new leader in the capital, Sana'a.

He faces the challenge of uniting a heavily divided country. Yemen has long dealt with a separatist insurgency in the south, Shi'ite rebels in the north and an active wing of al-Qaida.

In his inaugural speech, Mr. Hadi pledged to continue the fight against al-Qaida militants and make it possible for displaced Yemenis to return home.