Al-Qaeda claims rocket attack on Yemen oil plant

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

SANAA (AFP) — The Yemen branch of Al-Qaeda said on Monday it had fired three rockets against an oil refinery east of Sanaa, but witnesses said the attack was abortive.

Al-Qaeda said in a statement posted on an Islamist website that its Jund al-Yemen (Soldiers of Yemen) group launched three Katyusha rockets against the Safir refinery in the Maarib province.

Wednesday's attack was aimed at "drying up the supply of fuel of the Zionist and Crusader (regime of President President Ali Abdallah Saleh)," it said.

Yemen has not announced any attack but witnesses in the area, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Sanaa, told AFP that two rockets had been found intact and not been fired, while the third missed its target.

Besides the refinery, the...