ADEN — An accidental blast at an army ammunitions depot stocked with mines and explosives killed six soldiers in south Yemen Monday, a local municipality official said. The blast occurred Monday morning in an explosives warehouse at an army base in the southern port city of Aden, “killing six soldiers and wounding others,” local municipality chief Abdel Munim Al-Abd said. He said an initial investigation revealed that the explosion took place “while soldiers were organizing the explosives in the warehouse.” According to Munim, the warehouse is stocked with large quantities of mines and explosives that were recovered after Al-Qaeda's retreat from their strongholds in the southern Abyan province in June. Local residents said a series of loud blasts rang out across the city and large plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the site. This is the second such accident in Yemen in less than a week.On Thursday, a shell fired accidentally at an army weapons depot in the Yemeni capital Sanaa killed two people and wounded seven others. A man claiming to be Al-Qaeda's No. 2 in Yemen released an audio denying reports that he had died in a US drone attack, as Yemeni officials said Monday that another top member of the terror network was killed in a drone strike earlier this month. The authenticity of the clip, purportedly made by Saeed Al-Shihri, could not be confirmed. It was produced by Al-Qaeda's media arm in Yemen, Al-Malahem, and posted on militant websites late Sunday. When top members of Al-Qaeda are killed, the militants will frequently report their what they call “martyrdom.” The US does not usually comment on drone attacks. — Agencies
