Gunmen launched two attacks on the export pipeline linking Yemen’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea, sparking a fire and halting oil flow

Gunmen launched two attacks on the export pipeline linking Yemen's eastern oil fields to the Red Sea, sparking a fire and halting oil flow, an official and tribal sources said Wednesday.
  
Attacks on oil and gas pipelines in Yemen are frequent and are often carried out by heavily armed tribes as a lever to press for the release of jailed relatives. The latest attacks took place late Tuesday at Al-Hatik, near Wadi Abida in the lawless eastern province of Marib.
  
The unidentified gunmen damaged one part of the pipeline and then launched a second attack some 500 meters (yards) away, a tribal source told AFP. "The pipeline was badly damaged in the attack, which was the most serious this year," an industry official said.
  
"Technicians have not yet managed to control the fire that broke out in the pipeline, interrupting the flow of oil," the official added. The 320 kilometer (200 mile) pipeline links the Safer oilfields to the export terminal in Hodeida province on the coast.