Sombre Yemen marks national day

22 May 2012, 7:29 pm   -   Source: AAP

A day after a deadly blast, Yemen's president has attended a symbolic parade but sat behind a bulletproof shield with his armoured car parked nearby.

Yemeni leaders have led a sombre ceremony to mark the country's national day, scaling back the celebrations a day after a suicide bombing killed nearly 100 soldiers during a rehearsal for a military parade.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, along with top military commanders, government officials and foreign diplomats, took part in a small, symbolic parade held inside Sanaa's Aviation Academy. Hadi sat behind a bulletproof glass shield with his armoured car parked nearby.

Security concerns were paramount at the ceremony following Monday's suicide attack, when a Yemeni soldier detonated a bomb hidden in his uniform during a rehearsal for a military parade for National Day, which marks the 1990 reunification of north and south Yemen. Ninety-six soldiers were killed and at least 200 wounded in what was one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in years.

Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing, saying in an emailed statement that the suicide attack was intended to avenge a US-backed offensive against al-Qaeda in a swath of southern Yemen seized by the militant movement last year.

Addressing the crowd on Tuesday, the chief of staff of the Yemeni military, Major General Ahmed Ali al-Ashwal, vowed the nation would not be deterred by such attacks.

"We will not let terrorism destroy our future and dreams," he said.

Al-Ashwal was the only official to speak at the ceremony, which was drastically scaled back because of security concerns. The parade was cut from three hours to one hour, a fly-over by fighter jets was cancelled and only cadets from the police and aviation academies participated in the program.

Despite their grief, Yemenis for the first time marked the National Day without their longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, who held power for nearly 30 years. Saleh was forced to step down after a year-long uprising where hundreds of thousands of Yemenis took to the streets demanding his ouster.

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