SAN`A, Yemen (AP) - Suicide bombers tried to strike two oil facilities in Yemen with explosives-packed cars, but authorities foiled the attacks and at least two bombers were killed, officials said Friday.
The attempts came days before the country's presidential elections in which President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces a serious challenge for the first time since he became head of state in 1978.
They also came days after al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, issued a videotaped threat of attacks on the Persian Gulf, and on facilities he blamed for stealing Muslim oil.
The facilities targeted in Friday's attacks were a Yemeni oil refinery in the northeast province of Mareb, and a Canadian-Yemeni oil storage facility at the Dubba Port in Haramut province - scene of a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg, an Interior Ministry official said.
It appears that several Canadian oil companies operate in Yemen, so it's unclear at this point which facility was attacked or if the fact that it was Canadian-run was even a factor in its targeting.
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