video transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: Hundreds gathered in Sana'a on Tuesday (June 19) for the funeral of Major General Salem Ali Qatan, the commander of military forces in the south of Yemen, who was killed by a suicide bomber in the port city of Aden on Monday, days after troops drove Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda from their southern strongholds. The killing of Qatan highlighted the tenuous grip of Yemen's central authorities on the south, despite a month of U.S.-supported bombardments and air strikes aimed at crushing the militants. Yemen's Defense Ministry said the suicide bomber, a member of an al-Qaeda Islamist insurgency, hurled himself at Qatan's vehicle, also killing two soldiers escorting him. It identified the bomber as a Somali, but gave no other details.