More than 100 people were killed in attacks on a military parade in Yemen on Monday, writes Nasser Arrabyee in Sanaa Two suicide bombers with motorcycles were arrested before they were able to carry out a new terrorist operation against the Yemeni army, after Monday's massacre in which hundreds of soldiers were either killed or injured, security sources in the Yemeni capital Sanaa said on Tuesday. The two bombers had apparently been planning to ram their motorcycles into buses carrying the soldiers, who were participating in the military parade held in Sanaa on Tuesday to celebrate Yemeni national day. It had been decided to go ahead with the parade despite Monday's massacre, which had happened at a rehearsal for the parade. The parade was not held in the square where the massacre happened, but was moved to the air defence college near to the residence of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Less than half of the planned parade force participated in the celebration, which was attended by Hadi, state officials and diplomats. Soldiers from rival units, defectors or those loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, were excluded from participating in Tuesday's parade after the massacre on Monday. There were 2,900 military cadets in the parade, all of them from military colleges and institutes. Held on the 22nd anniversary of Unification Day on 22 May 1990, Hadi said at the parade on Tuesday that he would do everything possible to eradicate Al-Qaeda from Yemen. Al-Qaeda in Yemen had claimed responsibility for Monday's massacre, saying it was in retaliation for the "American war" against it in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan. In a statement sent to local journalists as an SMS from Al-Qaeda elements in contact with the media, Al-Qaeda said the target had been Minister of Defence Mohamed Nasser Ahmed. Neither the minister nor his deputies were harmed, however, since they had been 500 metres away when the attacks took place. However, observers say that Al-Qaeda targeted as many soldiers as possible and not the minister, but after local and international condemnation it had decided to say that the target had been the minister, in charge of the fight against Al-Qaeda in the south of the country. Interviews with survivors indicated that those responsible for the massacre had indeed targeted soldiers and officials, including the minister of defense. One attacker, apparently armed with rocket- propelled grenades, had been killed as he tried to kill the minister of defence and other senior military officials. This happened immediately after a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing more than 100 and injuring more than 300 in the middle of the rehearsal for the parade. "After the bombing, our commander ordered us to lie on the ground, because he could see an attacker heading for the stage where the officials were sitting," said Jamal, an officer participating in the rehearsal. "We lay down on the ground, and after we heard bullets we were told to stand up and move," he said. "They told us that security had shot the attacker before he was able to fire his rocket launcher at the stage." The attacker had apparently been wearing civilian clothes, unlike the earlier bomber who had been wearing military uniform. The soldiers taking part in the parade were given a break at about 10am, some climbing through the wall between the parade square and the adjacent Al-Sabeen amusement park. "I think the suicide bomber entered at the time of the break. It would have been easier for him because people were milling around in a random fashion," Jamal said. An eyewitness, Abdallah Said, said he had seen a soldier alone in the amusement park getting closer and closer to the wall. "Then I saw many soldiers coming in and out through the wall, and this one joined them and jumped over the wall like the others. Seconds later, I heard the bombing," he said. It was a terrible day for the 6,000 or so soldiers engaged in the final part of the rehearsal for the parade, which took place in Al-Sabeen Square, the country's largest parade ground in the south of the capital Sanaa. "All of a sudden, minutes before we had finished, we heard a huge explosion, and then we heard the commander through the loudspeaker telling us not to move and then telling us to evacuate the area," Jamal said. "As I was moving away from the middle of the square, I saw body parts everywhere, and then I realised that we were under attack." The massacre, condemned worldwide, came two weeks after Al-Qaeda leader Ayman El-Zawahri called on his followers in Yemen to overthrow the new president, describing him as "worse than Saleh". One day before the massacre, Al-Qaeda had failed to kill US military trainers working in the western province of Hodeida. On the same day, Al-Qaeda operatives kidnapped a Spanish security expert from the Spanish embassy, the Yemeni authorities finding his body on Tuesday in Sanaa. On Wednesday, the so-called Friends of Yemen group was due to meet in the Saudi capital Riyadh for another in a series of meetings on the situation in Yemen.
