SANAA — Tribesmen blew up an oil pipeline in eastern Yemen on Saturday in retaliation for an attack on one of their chiefs accused of harbouring Al-Qaeda operatives, tribal sources said.

The sabotage targeted a section of the pipeline that runs about six kilometres (four miles) east of Marib, capital of the province of the same name, the sources said.

Witnesses said the assailants first used a bulldozer to expose the pipeline before blowing it up, sparking a blaze which sent a column of black smoke over the site known as “Kilometre 40.”

However, Yemen’s interior ministry cited security sources as saying “police opened fire on the outlaws and forced them to flee before any damage was made to the pipeline on which (the police) imposed tight security measures.”

The attack was in retaliation for an army raid on the home of tribal chief Sheikh Nasser Gammad bin Dawham, who stood accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda members, the tribal sources said. They gave no details about the raid.

On June 5, a Yemeni colonel and two soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected Al-Qaeda members near the city of Marib as they travelled in convoy to inspect military forces stationed in the Safar oilfield.

Tribesmen from Marib, where Al-Qaeda has a strong presence, last month set ablaze two oil pipelines near the Safar fields but the authorities have since repaired the damage.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and has been the site several attacks claimed by the group on foreign missions, tourist sites and oil installations.

However, it has suffered setbacks amid US pressure on Sanaa to crack down on the active affiliate of the group known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).