The targeting of members of the security forces (here, here andhere) continues in southern Yemen. Yesterday, three more wereshot dead in Zinjibar near the intelligence headquarters by masked men riding a motorcycle.

In what may be an unrelated incident, a soldier blew himself up in front of the General Security Office in ad-Dhali' on Tuesday. The Yemen Times reports that nine other soldiers were injured, along with a 15-year-old youth who was passing by.

The paper quotes local sources as suggesting the soldier had a grievance over ill-treatment and non-payment of wages. Another suggestion is that he might have been rigged with explosives without his knowledge.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 6 August 2010.

UPDATE, 8 August: Four men have been arrested in connection with the Zinjibar attack, which is being attributed to al-Qaeda. The Yemen Observer has more details. The paper also gives a different version of the suicide bombing on Tuesday, where a (possibly disaffected) soldier was originally reported to have blown himself up. According to the Yemen Observer, the attacker was another motorcyclist and "the suicide attack bears the hallmarks of al-Qaeda".