Yemen navy admiral escapes Qaeda attack, guards killed

A Yemeni navy admiral escaped an assassination attempt Tuesday in the south of the country blamed on Al-Qaeda, but two of his guards were killed, a military source said. Admiral Kassem Labbuza, who heads a force charged with protecting the Balhaf port on the Gulf of Aden, was unharmed in the attack near a gas complex, the source said. Two of his guards were killed, however, and a third wounded before the assailants identified as "Al-Qaeda members" fled the scene. The attack occurred during a security inspection of the site. Al-Qaeda has been blamed by the authorities for numerous attacks against energy facilities and soldiers in south Yemen, a stronghold of the extremists. Meanwhile, tribal sources said six soldiers were freed after being kidnapped when their plane, a Russian-made Antonov AN-26, made an emergency landing in the country's southeast.