Aden - Abyan army claims responsibility for the French oil tanker explosion
Yemen, Local, 10/11/2002

The Yemeni minister of transport and naval affairs Saeed al-Yafi' announced on Thursday that Sanaa does not rule out any hypothesis on reasons behind the explosion which took place on Sunday in the French oil tanker Limburg off the Yemeni coast.

In a press conference in al- Mukalla, southern east Yemen, the Yemeni minister added that all possibilities exist, and "we do not rule out the any hypothesis concerning the incident." The statements of the Yemeni Minister is different from statements made by the Yemeni authorities which until then rejected the possibility of an attack, in contrary to the team of the tanker and its owner.

This, however, coincided with the announcement made by the Islamic Aden- Abyan army organization of responsibility for the incident.

The London- based al-Sharq al-Awsat said yesterday it had received a statement through Ansar al-Sharia (al-Sharia partisans) in London in which Aden - Abyan army claims responsibility for blowing off the French oil tanker in Dubba port at the coast of Hadramout in Yemen. The paper quoted the statement as saying that the "organization has avenged its leader Zein al-Abidin al-Mihdar, who was executed by the Yemeni authorities after he was convicted in a kidnapping and killing crime of foreign tourists two years ago." The Ansar al-Sharia organization which is led by a British of an Egyptian origin called " Abu Hamzeh al-Masri " issued statements in the past in the name of Aden- Abyan Islamic army claiming responsibility for explosions taking place in Yemen.

Previous Stories:
  Washington: the Fire in the French oil tanker off Yemeni coast is an accident   (10/8/2002)
  French oil tanker blown off Eastern coast of Yemen, 12 wounded, 13 missing   (10/7/2002)
  Yemen: al-Ahmar's two sons are in prison   (10/2/2002)

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