The next question in any of these cases is always the matter of inside help or negligence. “Al-Qaeda militants escape Yemen prison,” from the Telegraph, June 22:
In a carefully choreographed escape, the militants attacked their guards and seized their weapons just as bands of heavily armed attackers descended on the prison in Mukalla on the Arabian Sea.
The 62 escapees included militants convicted on terror charges or held in protective custody pending trial, according to officials. Two were reportedly rearrested.
The jail is believed to house more than 100 al-Qaeda militants.
The last major jail breakout by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen took place in 2006, when 23 escaped a Sana’a detention facility including Qassim al-Raimi, who has become the dominant figure in al-Qaeda’s most active franchise.
The branch has been linked to several nearly successful attacks on US targets, including the plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009. The group also put sophisticated bombs into US-addressed parcels that made it onto cargo flights….