Al Qaeda claims responsibility for deadly Yemen attack

Yemenis pray over the coffins of troops killed when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle outside a presidential palace in Mukalla on February 27, 2012.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced its responsibility for the presidential palace attack last Saturday in Yemen's southern province of Hadramout.
The attack resulted in the death of 21 republican guards and the injury of nine others, according to the interior minister, and occurred just one hour after President Abdu Rabu Hadi was sworn in as Yemen's next president, raising fears that al Qaeda was not weakened by the attacks against them.
An al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula statement claiming responsibility for the attack identified the suicide bomber as Abu Mihjan al-Sayari.
The interior ministry said that an explosive laden vehicle drove through the presidential palace gate in the city of Mukalla. The attack was one of the deadliest terror attacks against security forces in recent years.
Ali Saeed Obaid, spokesperson for the military committee, the highest security authority in the country, told CNN that the attack will not affect the security of the country. "The presidential palace in Hadramout is on a mountaintop and not inside the city of Mukalla. That is why the civilian deaths are little to none," he said.