Yemen's main airport reopens day after attack

The airport opened a day after gunmen loyal to the nations ousted president seized the facility in the capital Sanaa in a brazen challenge to the new governments authority, officials said.Supporters of former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh attacked the airport on Saturday, shooting up a surveillance tower and sending tanks and armored vehicles to occupy the tarmac. Their action followed a military shake-up in which key commanders loyal to Saleh were fired.The attack highlighted the challenges facing new President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who must balance a promise to purge ex-regime elements from the army with the risk that his predecessors loyalists will cause massive disruption rather than go quietly.The security officials said the attackers pulled out from the airport on Sunday but that ex-president Salehs half brother, air force commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, was determined not to leave his office at the military wing of the airport despite being fired in Hadis purge. Aides have said he would not give up his post until Hadi also fired some of the ex-presidents opponents.At stake in this power struggle is the stability of the Arab worlds poorest country. Al-Qaida has taken advantage of the last years turmoil to seize large swaths of the south of the country.The Yemeni branch of al-Qaida is one of the militant movements most active. It has planned foiled attacks on American soil with Washington striking back at the groups leaders.A suspected U.S. drone fired a missile on Saturday evening that hit a car carrying al-Qaida militants in the east of the country, the Yemeni officials said. All eight occupants, five Yemenis and three Arab nationals, were killed in the strike.The missile strike and the death toll were confirmed by tribal leaders in the province of Shabwa, where the attack took place. The tribal leaders spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals, while the security officials did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.Washington has backed the power deal that brought in Hadi after more than three decades of Salehs rule, hoping that he will end the upheaval and uproot al-Qaida from its enclaves.