Yemeni public prosecutors have begun investigating the killing of a guard by an alleged al-Qaida member as he attempted to shoot his way out of a hospital, a military-run news website reported on Thursday.
The Defence Ministry's website 26sep.net said the al-Qaida suspect, Sharif Mobley, whose attempt to escape was foiled by the guards of the Republican Hospital in the capital Sanaa in March, was a Somali American from New Jersey, Xinhua reported.
Mobley was also charged with injuring another guard when he snatched a weapon from one of the guards and opened fire at them to flee.
On March 7, one Yemeni soldier was killed and another was injured in an exchange of fire between security guards and Mobley who was held at the hospital for treatment.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida network leader Osama bin Laden, has intensified security operations and air raids against terrorist groups, after the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing claimed responsibility for a botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. passenger plane bound for Detroit.
Last Monday, a Yemeni suicide bomber carried out a botched assassination attempt targeting British envoy to Yemen Tim Torlot. The attack only left the bomber dead and three passersby injured while the diplomat and his escorts survived unscathed.
Yemen's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its security forces killed more than 35 al-Qaida militants in pre-emptive raids across the country and captured dozens of suspected extremists over the past weeks.