SANAA - An al Qaeda suspect tried to shoot his way out of hospital in Yemen's capital on Sunday and killed a guard, while security forces and separatists clashed in the south of the country with five wounded. The suspected al Qaeda militant snatched a gun from one of two intelligence agents guarding his room and opened fire, a hospital administrator said. One of the agents was killed and the other wounded, a security official said. A Defence Ministry website identified the suspect, who was apprehended, as a German citizen of Somali origin. More gunmen opened fire at the hospital gate as the al Qaeda suspect tried to escape, the administrator added. "I saw smoke rising from the window of one storey of the hospital, and heard the screams of people who were inside," said a journalist, who was at the hospital when shooting erupted. Yemen became a major Western security concern after the Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December. Hospital sources said the suspected militant was apprehended, but the gunmen at the hospital gate escaped. A security official said the suspect had been among 11 al Qaeda suspects held this week in the capital Sanaa. Western allies and neighbouring Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability in impoverished Yemen to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond. Yemen has stepped up control of tens of thousands of Somali refugees after Somali Islamist rebels said in January they were ready to send reinforcements to al Qaeda in Yemen. As well as fighting al Qaeda, Yemen is trying to contain separatist tension in the south and end a northern Shi'ite insurgency. Last month, facing international pressure to focus on al Qaeda, Sanaa declared a truce in the northern conflict.
