Qaeda plot to attack vital installations in a province that is home to much of the country's oil resources and a key pipeline that ferries crude to the coast, the defense ministry said Monday. The ministry's online newspaper said security forces had destroyed an Al-Qaeda hideout in the Marib province and foiled a “plot on the verge of implementation to target economic and government installations and army camps”. It did not say what installations were being targeted. Tension has been high in Marib, east of the capital, since a Yemeni mediator who was also Marib's deputy governor was killed in May in an errant air strike targeting Al-Qaeda, prompting clashes between his kinsmen and government troops. The announcement that authorities had foiled an Al-Qaeda plot followed several days of gun battles between Yemeni forces and militants in Wadi Obeida, a suspected militant stronghold in Marib. At least one person was killed and around 20 more wounded in fighting and shelling in the area, according to the government. Tribesmen suspected of being aligned with Al-Qaeda later blew up a crude pipeline linking Maarib to the Red Sea coast. Tribal leaders, however, have given higher casualty tolls in the government's assault, launched Wednesday with the stated aim of catching suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen thought to be behind an ambush of a military convoy that killed a commander and a soldier. Al-Qaeda members have forged links with Yemen tribesmen in efforts to establish a support base in the Arabian peninsula country. The defense ministry said authorities had identified militants responsible for bombing the pipeline Saturday. “Those who blew up the pipeline are a dangerous and wanted group of Al-Qaeda elements,” the defense ministry's report said, saying their ranks included Yemenis and at least two Saudi nationals.
