Somali terrorist kills senior Yemeni commander

[AhlulbaytSoldier]

The commander of Yemen's southern military
region has been killed in a suicide attack in the
port city of Aden, medics and officials say.
General Salem Ali Qatan was killed near his
home in the Mansoura neighbourhood of Aden
on Monday, a medical official told the AFP news
agency on condition of anonymity.
"Four others were wounded in the suicide
attack," the medic said.
The medic said the attacker "handed Qatan a
paper, shook his hand and then detonated
himself" as the general was walking to his office.
Witnesses said the bomber was wearing an
explosives belt.
As the chief military commander in south
Yemen, Qatan had led a month-long offensive
against al-Qaeda, forcing the armed group to
withdraw from several towns and villages in the
Abyan and Shabwa provinces which they had
controlled since last year.
The latest attack came as al-Qaeda fled from
their last bastion in the town of Azzan in
Shabwa.
Since last week, al-Qaeda has withdrawn from
three other strongholds in Abyan, including the
capital Zinjibar, and the towns of Jaar and
Shuqra.
Qatan was appointed in March just days after
newly elected President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi
took office and pledged to destroy al-Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula, the name given to the
armed group's local Yemen branch.
The killing of Major General Salem Ali Qatan
highlighted the tenuous grip of Yemen's central
authorities on the south despite a month of US-
supported bombardments and airstrikes aimed
at crushing the militants.
The defence ministry said a suicide bomber
hurled himself at Qatan's vehicle, also killing two
soldiers escorting him. It identified the bomber
as a Somali but gave no other details.
Pools of blood coated the street where the
bomber struck.
A doctor at the hospital where Qatan died said
12 other people, nine of them soldiers, were
wounded in the attack in Aden, a port city
overlooking oil shipping lanes fewer than 100km
from several cities which Islamists flying al
Qaeda's banner recently controlled.
'Huge loss for Yemen'
The post had been held for decades by General
Mahdi Maqola, known for his close ties to
former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Saleh was accused by his opponents of allowing
al-Qaeda to establish a stronghold in Yemen's
mostly lawless south and east.
Qatan's appointment was in line with the Gulf-
sponsored power-transition deal that saw Saleh
quit after 33 years in power, and required Hadi
to restructure the Yemeni army during a two-
year interim period.
Ali Mansur, a senior army commander and close
aide to Qatan described the general's death as
"a huge loss for Yemen and its efforts to fight al-
Qaeda".
Speaking to the AFP news agency by phone,
Mansur said the attack "bears the hallmark of al-
Qaeda," though the armed group have not
formally claimed responsibility for his death.
He gave Qatan full credit for the recent Yemen
army's victories against al-Qaeda in both Abyan
and Shabwa.
"In just three months, Qatan achieved major
progress towards chasing down and eliminating"
the fighters from their strongholds, Mansur said.

[AhlulbaytSoldier]

With this brutal crime the terrorist puts life of poor somali qaxooti in danger.
I wont be shocked if a lot of somalis are killed suspected of being alqeada.