Al-Qaeda jihadists on Friday attacked an army checkpoint in southern Yemen, killing five pro-government soldiers and wounding several others, security officials said.
The attack took place in the Mudiya region of Abyan province, they added.
“Five soldiers were killed and several others wounded on Friday morning in an attack carried out by Al-Qaeda gunmen… on a checkpoint,” one security official told AFP.
A second security official said the “Al-Qaeda fighters used machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades” in the attack, confirming that five pro-government forces had been killed.
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The United States considers Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) the global jihadist network’s most dangerous branch.
AQAP, Islamic State group and other jihadist factions have flourished in the chaos of Yemen’s civil war, which has pitted the government — backed by a Saudi-led military coalition since 2015 — against Shiite Huthi rebels.
Mudiya region, where the attack took place, used to be a bastion of Al-Qaeda at the onset of the civil war before loyalist forces drove jihadists from it, the security sources said.
AFP
