NAN-F-29
Army
Sanaa, June 12, 2017 (Xinhua/NAN) Security forces say four soldiers were killed and five others injured when suspected militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch attacked an army checkpoint in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Monday.
The official said that the attackers armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades tried to storm the military checkpoint located in Dowan area of Hadramout province, sparking an intense fighting that left casualties.
He said that the soldiers positioned in the checkpoint successfully repulsed the terrorist attack but lost four of their partners at the scene and about five others injured.
Another Yemeni source in Hadramout said that some of the attackers were arrested and three others were killed during the exchange of fire with the soldiers in the area.
The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for the incident in Hadramout, saying that several Yemeni soldiers were killed and military vehicles were destroyed by jihadist attackers.
Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaeda insurgents in the Middle East.
The Yemen-based AQAP, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Yemen’s army and government institutions.
So far, the AQAP and other terrorists have taken advantage of the security vacuum and ongoing civil war to expand their influence and seize more territories in the south of the country.
The security situation in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015.
This happened as a result of a war that broke out between the Shiite Houthi group supported by former President Ali Saleh, and the government forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. (Xinhua/NAN)
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