Eleven killed in attack on Yemen’s spy agency

SANA’A - Armed militants attacked the headquarters of Yemen’s intelligence services in the southern port city of Aden Saturday, killing 11 people, police said.

The attackers broke into the offices of the Political Security Agency in Tawahi in Aden and opened fire at the guards, killing seven police agents, the supreme security committee said in a statement.

Three women and a three-year-old boy were killed in adjacent houses, said the statement, cited by the official Saba news agency.

It said initial investigation showed that the attack “carries the hallmarks of Al Qaeda”.

A police source told DPA that among the seven security personnel killed were two female police officers.

A doctor working at the facility was among the police fatalities, the source said.

The militants are believed to belong to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Residents of adjacent houses said the militants had fired rocket-propelled grenades and detonated hand grenades.

The attack appeared to be a bid to free detainees.

The compound houses a high-security jail in which suspected members of Al Qaeda and members of the Yemen’s separatist Southern Movement are incarcerated.