Yemeni Defense Minister Survives Attack, Day After Al-Qaeda Chief Confirmed Killed

By Maya Shwayder | September 11 2012 11:36 AM

A day after Yemen confirmed that the top Al-Qaeda operative in Yemen was killed, Yemen's Defense Minister Major General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed has survived a car bombing that may have been an assassination attempt.

Reuters

The site of a car bomb attack targeting the motorcade of the country's defense minister in Sanaa, Yemen, September 11, 2012.

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The car bomb exploded outside the prime minister's offices in Sanaa, German outlet Deutsche Welle reported. At least 12 other people, including seven bodyguards, were killed in the blast.

A Yemeni security official confirmed to AFP that the defense minister was the target, and that "the explosion was the result of a bomb-laden car."

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Christian Science Monitor pointed out that it "bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda."

On Tuesday, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's replacement as Al-Qaeda's head, confirmed the "martyrdom of the lion of Libya, Sheikh Hassan Mohammed Qaed," using the birth name of Abu Yahya al-Libi, the head of Al-Qaeda's Yemen's operations, Reuters reported.