Ammunition factory blast kills 3, injures 55 in Yemen: police
At least three people were killed and 55 others were wounded after a blast ripped off an ammunition factory on Monday near the southern Yemeni town of Jaar in Abyan province, police said.
The factory was seized by suspected al-Qaida militants on Sunday, who looted the equipment and ammunition of the factory.
A witness told Xinhua that after al-Qaida suspects looted almost everything of the factory, local residents headed to the factory to loot what have left behind. One citizen lit a cigarette inside the plant, triggering the huge blast.
Most of the injured were in critical conditions, said the witness.
Abyan is the stronghold of resurgent al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) which have been carried out almost daily operations and string of attacks against Yemeni security and military personnel, leaving dozens killed since 2009.
Police sources there have confirmed that the AQAP has taken control of several districts and towns in the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa as the security authorities were busy in protecting anti-government weeks-long protests demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.
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