Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Yemen attack

SANA’A - Al Qaeda’s Yemeni wing Sunday claimed responsibility for last month’s attack on the intelligence headquarters in Aden that left at least 11 people dead.

The Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), however, claimed that the attack left 24 people dead.

“The battalion of martyrs broke into the intelligence headquarters’ building in Aden on early June 19 and successfully managed to kill at least 24 security officers, soldiers and police who were in the building at that time,” Xinhua reported, quoting a AQAP statement.

“We killed 15 high-ranking intelligence officers, six intelligence policewomen, all the security soldiers who were guarding the main gate of the building and one cleaning worker, set fire to all offices of the building - including offices of the intelligence director and his deputy and to two police cars, destroyed six other vehicles and looted Israeli-made automatic weapons,” the AQAP statement said.

“And we confirm that we had killed all security personnel who were serving that day in the building, we had murdered them one by one,” the statement said.

On June 19, attackers broke into the offices of the Political Security Agency in Tawahi in Aden and opened fire at the guards, killing seven police agents. Three women and a three-year-old boy were killed in adjacent houses, the official Saba news agency said.

Among the seven security personnel killed were two female police officers, officials said.