Yemeni Prez Takes Office; Terrorist Kills 25

President Hadi vowed to battle al-Qaeda hours before strike
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 25, 2012 1:15 PM CST
Yemeni Prez Takes Office; Terrorist Kills 25
Yemen's newly elected President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi waves as he arrives to the Parliament in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012.   (Hani Mohammed)

A car bomb outside the gate of a presidential compound in southern Yemen killed at least 25 people hours after the country's new president was formally inaugurated and vowed to fight al-Qaeda. A security official said the attack in the city of Mukalla in Hadramout province was carried out by a suicide bomber, and that it bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. Both al-Qaeda and southern separatists are active in the region.

The blast came soon after Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was sworn in as president to replace longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, following an election aimed at ending more than a year of political turmoil in Yemen. Hadi was the only candidate in the election. In his televised speech before parliament, Hadi vowed to keep up Yemen's fight against al-Qaeda-linked militants, who have taken advantage of the country's political turmoil to seize control of towns and swaths of territory in the country's restive south. (More Yemen stories.)

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