SANAA, January 21 (Sputnik) — Suspected al-Qaeda gunmen on Wednesday stormed the office of Yemen’s International Bank in a major port city of al-Mukalla in the country’s south, a local source told the Sputnik news agency.
“Gunmen with suspected links to al-Qaeda have stormed the bank and forced bank employees to hand over to them a large sum of money,” the source told Sputnik.
The robbery comes amid a power vacuum in Yemen, following days of fierce clashes and gunfight in the country’s capital Sanaa where Houthi rebels have been storming government offices. In September, Houthi militants overran the capital to demand the government's resignation.
Yemen has been a stronghold for a major al-Qaeda branch known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). It is considered as one of the most active and violent terrorist cells of the al-Qaeda network.
