Sanaa: Yemen's interior ministry said Friday that 29 prisoners, most of them Al Qaeda inmates, escaped during attacks on the central prison in the capital Sanaa Thursday night, which left seven people dead and four wounded.
Citing a statement issued by the ministry and carried by the official Saba news agency, Xinhua reported that 19 of the 29 prisoners were convicted of terrorism-related charges and they escaped through a hole blown open by a car bomb in the prison's western wall, taking advantage of chaos when the guards exchanged fire with a group of gunmen.
The ministry released the list of names of the 29 prisoners, three of whom were accused of plotting to assassinate Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The ministry said in a statement Thursday night that it foiled the attempt by terrorists to break into the central prison, and the attack left seven people dead and two wounded, without specifying whether the victims were civilians or soldiers.
It also said that some prisoners took advantage of the chaos and managed to escape and it launched an investigation into the attack and sent soldiers to search for the escaped prisoners.
