About 10 militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot were killed when army units launched two overnight raids on their hideouts in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout, a military official told Xinhua on Sunday.
“Hideouts of the al-Qaida militants near Hadramout’s provincial capital of Mukalla were attacked by special army units supported by helicopters of the Saudi-led coalition after receiving intelligence tip-offs,” the Yemeni military source said on condition of anonymity.
He said that about two soldiers were killed and seven others injured during their participation in the same anti-terror military campaign in Hadramout.
Some of the al-Qaida militants immediately surrendered themselves to the army after short armed confrontations, he added.
Last week, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest among scores of recruits who had gathered to meet a government committee for registration with local police forces in Mukalla city.
More than 30 people were killed and nearly 70 others injured in the attack, according to local Yemeni medics.
The Yemen-based affiliate of the Islamic State group has officially claimed credit for the suicide bombing that targeted police recruits in Hadramout.
Over the past few weeks, Yemeni government forces and the Saudi-led coalition have been conducting well-planned and unprecedented attacks on key bastions of the al-Qaida terrorist group in the country’s southern and eastern regions.
Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers newly trained by the Saudi-led coalition and supported by UAE special troops managed last month to recapture the coastal city of Mukalla after intense fighting and intensified air raids on al-Qaida positions.
Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.
The Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, also known as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Yemen’s army and government institutions.
It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence in Yemen’s southern regions.
The fragile security situation in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.
xinhuanet.com
