Gunmen attacked a Yemeni power station and security patrols on Thursday in the city of Marib where troops had killed four al Qaeda militants a day earlier, security sources said. Officials suspect the gunmen were either al Qaeda militants or sympathisers. There were no reports of casualties and the fighting has subsided, the sources said.
On Wednesday Yemeni security forces killed four al Qaeda militants who were involved in an attack that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemenis last month.
Clashes broke out again early on Thursday when gunmen attacked security patrols and a power station. Electricity supplies were not disrupted, said one state security source in Marib, about 150 km (95 miles) east of the capital Sanaa. "There have been several clashes with gunmen in the city of Marib, but the situation is now calm," the source said.
"The gunmen are thought to belong to al Qaeda or to be sympathisers with the four militants who were killed yesterday." Yemen, ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is viewed in the West as a haven for Islamist militants. The US embassy in Sanaa said there was now a risk of attacks previously unseen in Yemen, in a reference to the suicide bombing at the Queen of Sheba Temple in Marib that killed the Spanish tourists.
Yemen has said its security forces killed an Egyptian who helped mastermind the attack carried out by a 21-year-old Yemeni man, Abdou Mohammad Rahiqa. Yemen joined the US-led war against terrorism after al Qaeda's September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. It has offered a $75,500 reward for information leading to the capture of those behind the bombing. The second poorest Arab country after Sudan, Yemen has been trying to encourage tourists put off by kidnappings and bombings, and boost foreign investment as oil output dwindles.