Yemeni security officials said they arrested two men in June suspected of al-Qaeda links who confessed to a recent attack on an oil pipeline near the port city of Aden. The men tried unsuccessfully to blow up the pipeline with TNT, Yemeni officials reported, speaking on condition of anonymity according to government policy.Pipelines are a preferred target of terrorists and insurgents. In Colombia, terrorist groups, primarily the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN,) have attacked the 480-mile Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline so many times that it became known as “the flute.”
Recently, three men were arrested in the US on charges of plotting to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at JFK Airport, New York. One particular pipeline that came under specific scrutiny from the would-be attackers was the 65 km fuel pipeline from New Jersey to the airport.
Pipeline security will be one of the subjects covered in ARC Training’s new Protecting Critical National Infrastructure Course, currently under development and due for “roll out” in 2008.
