Yemen unrest : At least 110 dead in blast at ammo plant

The plant had already been raided by al Qaeda fighters on Sunday.

ADEN:

A massive blast killed at least 110 people on Monday at an ammunition plant in southern Yemen that was looted by al Qaeda.

A security official said that the explosion came as dozens of residents were inside the factory helping themselves to whatever ammunition was left after Sunday’s raid by suspected al Qaeda fighters.

A local official, Nasser al Mansari, had earlier told AFP between 75 and 80 were killed but that the death toll kept rising as the night wore on. A final death toll has not yet been determined.

Many of the bodies were incinerated by the explosion, which occurred at a factory near Jaar, a city in the restive province of Abyan, an al Qaeda stronghold. It remained unclear if the cause was accidental or the result of a booby-trap. Several bodies or remains of the victims have already been buried.

Yemen is a country where carrying firearms is a national passion and guns outnumber the 24 million-strong  population by more than two to one.

With the region falling into the hands of al Qaeda militants on Sunday, around 30 armed and hooded gunmen looted the factory and made off in four vehicles with cases of weapons, witnesses said.

The incident, two months into a revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, came as a security official said suspected al Qaeda militants had seized control of Jaar and its surrounding villages.

Lawless regions of southern Yemen provinces have turned into a base of operations for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the network’s franchise in the unrest-swept and impoverished country.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2011.