Deadly Suicide Bombing Targets Yemen Elite Republican Guard

A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle at an elite Republican Guard camp southwest of the Yemeni capital on Saturday, days after al-Qaida claimed a similar attack that killed 26 soldiers, military sources said.

One soldier was killed in the blast at the base in Bayda, 170 kilometers (105 miles) from Sanaa, the sources added. Five other soldiers were also wounded.

Witnesses said the bombing devastated the three-storey building.

The explosion hit at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) and was probably carried out by multiple assailants, a military official said.

The blast was followed by an exchange of fire between gunmen and Republican Guard troops, who are led by Ahmed Saleh, son of veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, who formally stepped down less than a week ago.

Bayda borders Abyan province, an al-Qaida stronghold in the south.

On Wednesday, the jihadists' Yemen franchise, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a presidential palace in Hadramawt province in the southeast that killed 26 Republican Guards last week.

That attack came as President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, the first new president in Sanaa since 1978, took the oath of office as Saleh's successor.

AQAP said that the bombing of the palace in the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla was "a clear message to the U.S. ambassador" Gerald M. Feierstein after alleged remarks he made "about restructuring the Yemeni army."

"This is a message to say that the U.S. project in Yemen will not succeed and that our operations will target this project and its tools wherever they may be," AQAP said.

In an address to the nation straight after being sworn in to succeed Saleh, Hadi vowed to press the fight against al-Qaida and restore security across his impoverished nation.

The jihadists took advantage of a decline in central government control during 10 straight months of deadly violence that led up to Saleh's signing of a transfer of power deal in November to seize large swathes of the south and east.

"It is a patriotic and religious duty to continue the battle against al-Qaida," the new president said last Saturday.

"If we don't restore security, the only outcome will be chaos."

Saleh had declared himself a U.S. ally in its "war on terror" but some of his opponents accused him of exaggerating the al-Qaida threat in a bid to win Western support to cling on to power.

Critics charge he may even have deliberately surrendered cities such as the Abyan provincial capital Zinjibar, which has been under al-Qaida linked militant control since May last year.

In mid-January, the extremists made a significant advance towards Sanaa when more than 1,000 al-Qaida fighters swept into the town of Rada, in Bayda province, and held it for nine days.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of slain jihadist leader Osama bin Laden.