Pipeline Explodes
If the regime says immediately that its tribesmen, then probably its not.
The Associated Press Monday, November 5, 2007
SAN’A, Yemen: Unidentified saboteurs bombed an oil pipeline Monday in Yemen’s central Marib province, causing damage but not casualties, a security official said.
Yemen’s official news agency SABA quoted Ahmed Fandar, a Marib security official, as saying a “group of saboteurs” were behind the explosion, which halted the flow of oil.
Fandar said the culprits placed a bomb under the pipeline that was timed to explode. He did not identify the identities of the bombers but said the Marib security department was investigating the incident.
The security official did not comment on earlier reports that the explosion set the surrounding area ablaze.
Al-Qaida militants have been active in sabotage operations against oil pipelines and power stations in the country.
In June, Yemeni security arrested two men suspected of al-Qaida links who confessed to an unsuccessful attempt to blow up an oil pipeline with TNT near the port city of Aden. Yemen produces 330,000 barrels of oil a day.
In August, al-Qaida militants attacked a power station and a government building in Marib, some 140 kilometers (85 miles) east of the capital, San’a, causing a major power outage. The attack was a response to an earlier raid by security forces who killed a senior al-Qaida operative in the area and three other militants.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1371169.php/Tribesmen_blow_up_oil_pipeline_in_Yemen
Sana’a – Tribesmen blew up an oil pipeline in north-central Yemen on Monday, but there were no reports of casualties, police officials said.
The explosion occurred in Marib province, about 190 kilometres north-east of the capital Sana’a.
Security officials told Deutsche-Presse Agentur dpa that the blast in the Serwah region of Marib, where the pipeline runs to the Red Sea exporting facility of Rass Essa, was the result of an explosive device.
It was not immediately clear whether the attackers were linked to the terror group al-Qaeda which has an active presence in the province.
Disgruntled tribesmen have frequently targeted the pipeline in the past few years to try to force the government to improve services to remote and impoverished areas.
Marib was also the scene of a deadly al-Qaeda-linked attack on a Spanish tourist convoy last July which left eight Spanish tourists dead.
In September 2006, two al-Qaeda suicide attackers blew up an explosives-laden pickup in the Safer oil refinery in Marib.
CAIRO — Foreign energy firms in Yemen have become vulnerable to tribal attacks.
Industry sources said Yemeni tribes have, like Al Qaida operatives, initiated campaigns to extort money from foreign energy contractors. The sources said oil workers’ camps and residences have come under attack as part of a campaign to obtain money and jobs.The Yemen Army has been deployed to protect the foreign oil installations. At least 12 people were killed in clashes between tribes and army troops in early November at the site of a Ukrainian oil company in the Shabwa province, east of Sanaa.
The sources said the unidentified Ukrainian contractor refused a tribal demand for jobs and money. Soon, tribes launched strikes on company installations, attacked Yemen Army vehicles and abducted six soldiers.
Sanaa increased security around foreign oil installations after some contractors warned they would leave Yemen. Yemen contracted the foreign companies to increase crude oil production, reported at 350,000 barrels per day.The sources said the tribes have joined Al Qaida in targeting the foreign presence in Yemen. On Nov. 7, a Yemeni court sentenced 30 nationals convicted of conducting Al Qaida attacks to up to 15 years.
The defendants were part of 36 Al Qaida operatives who attacked foreign energy installations in September 2006. At the time, Al Qaida conducted coordinated strikes on an oil refinery at Maarib and a gasoline storage terminal. The terminal in Hadramut province was operated by Canada’s Nexen.
Six of the main defendants were tried in absentia. They included Jaber Al Banna and Mohammed Al Omdah, who had recently surrendered to authorities.
