Yemen foils fourth bombing attempt in southeast

The Yemeni armed forces on Friday foiled an al-Qaida attempt to detonate an explosives-laden car at a gas terminal in the southern province of Shabwa after three previous attacks killed more than 65 people, the defense ministry said. The armed forces killed all the terrorists who were driving the car toward the Belhaf gas terminal in Shabwa province, the ministry said in a brief text message obtained by Xinhua. A military source confirmed the incident to Xinhua, saying: " the terrorists ignored an army checkpoint and ran away, the soldiers opened fire on their vehicle, triggering a huge blast that killed all militants on board." Earlier on Friday, three explosives-rigged cars went off at a military site and a police headquarters in Azzan of the same province, killing at least 65 soldiers and wounding dozens of others at the scene, a local government source said. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but militants of the al-Qaida terrorist group frequently set off attacks against Yemen's armed forces. The al-Qaida group is held responsible for a series of similar attacks against the Yemeni government forces, mostly in the southern regions. The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and the neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.