Tribal attackers bomb Yemen's oil export pipeline

Source :  Xinhua | English.news.cn

SANAA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Armed tribal attackers blew up Yemen 's main oil export pipeline late Friday, nearly two weeks after it was repaired, officials said Saturday.

"The pipeline was exploded by a high-explosive bomb of TNT in a desert area in Sarawah district i the northeast province of Marib, causing thick smoke from burning oil," a provincial security investigator told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

Local security reports indicated that those saboteurs have links to provincial terrorist groups affiliated with the al-Qaida wing.

The fresh attack was the eighth of its kind in two months targeting the pipeline, which carries about 110,000 barrels of crude oil a day to the country's main oil terminal on the Red Sea for export.

The flow was resumed on Jan. 11 after the government repairs the pipeline, which came following a tribal mediation that ended nearly a two-month-long conflict between local military authorities and tribesmen whom the government accused of repeatedly attacking the pipeline.

The army launched a massive offensive last month over the previous attack of the pipeline, leavin at least 10 militants killed and more than 15 others injured.

The cash-stripped Yemeni interim government depends on oil exports for up to 70 percent of its budget.