SANAA: Al Qaeda militants killed 10 Yemeni soldiers in three simultaneous attacks yesterday on army positions in the central province of Bayda, a military official said.
Twelve extremists were also killed in the assaults, which prompted further clashes with the army, the official said.
“Al Qaeda assailants carried out simultaneous attacks against three military positions in Rada” in Bayda, an extremist stronghold, a local official said.
Ten soldiers were killed and others wounded, and four soldiers captured, the military source said.
Among the attackers was one wearing an explosive belt who was killed by soldiers.
“Dozens of gunmen were involved in the Rada attacks,” a local official said, adding that the militants in Bayda had received reinforcements from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Al Sharia group,” who arrived from the southern Abyan province.
Yemen’s air force intervened with air strikes on the area, army officials said.
Al Qaeda supporters frequently target the 139th Brigade, stationed in Bayda since 2012 to battle radical Islamists there.
Farther east, a drone crashed in the remote Maharah desert near the border with Oman.
AFP
