Al-Qaeda suspects on Sunday killed seven policemen in an attack on a checkpoint in southeast Yemen, a security official said, a day after clashes between the army and militants left 40 dead.
“A group of Al-Qaeda terrorists in two vehicles opened machinegun fire on a checkpoint killing seven policemen” in Shibam, a town in the southeastern province of Hadramawt, the official said.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants from the group Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) have launched a wave of attacks in the region since former President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in February.
On Saturday, officials said that heavy fighting between the army and Islamist fighters who tried to take over several army posts left 40 people dead — 28 soldiers and 12 militants — in the southern Lahij province.
Al-Qaeda members also sabotaged a 320-kilometre gas pipeline linking Marib province to Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden, all in the country’s restive south, on Friday.
The pipeline attack came shortly after two US drone attacks in eastern Yemen targeted Al-Qaeda suspects killing seven people, six of them militants, according to an official.
{{/usCountry}}The pipeline attack came shortly after two US drone attacks in eastern Yemen targeted Al-Qaeda suspects killing seven people, six of them militants, according to an official.
{{/usCountry}}