Qaeda militants bomb pipeline in Yemen

Suspected al-Qaida militants blew up an oil pipeline in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa on Monday, causing oil leak and sending black smoke billowing into the sky, a government official told Xinhua. The powerful bomb explosion ripped through Shabwa's oil pipeline that transports some 10,000 barrels per day to Yemen's Belhaf export terminal in the Gulf of Aden, the local government source said on condition of anonymity. "Armed terrorists of the al-Qaida group placed a roadside bomb under the pipeline in al-Saed region in Shabwa's eastern outskirts. The huge explosion caused a leak in the pipeline," the government source said. The Yemeni official accused militants of the Yemen-based al- Qaida offshoot of being behind the pipeline bombing. Armed groups have repeatedly attacked Yemen's oil pipelines in the past years. Yemen's oil production rapidly declined from over 400,000 barrels per day at the beginning of the past decade to the current 270,000 barrels per day. The country's transitional government, which depends on oil exports for up to 70 percent of its budget, has beefed up security measures to protect the pipeline and prevent further attacks. Source: XINHUA