Suicide Bombing Outside Yemen Palace Kills 20

A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle outside a presidential palace in southeastern Yemen Saturday, killing 20 elite Republican Guards, under the command of outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh's son Ahmed, medics and a military official said.

"The bodies of 20 soldiers were taken to the mortuary and there are many others wounded," said a medic at the Ibn Sina hospital in the Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla.

A military official said that "a pick-up truck driven by a suicide bomber exploded at the entrance of the presidential palace in Mukalla" as Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi was sworn in as the first new president in Sanaa since 1978.

In an address to the nation straight after taking the oath of office to succeed Saleh, Hadi vowed to press the fight against Al-Qaida and restore security across his impoverished nation.

"It is a patriotic and religious duty to continue the battle against Al-Qaida," the new president said.

"If we don't restore security, the only outcome will be chaos."