Yemeni military sources informed Sky News Arabia of an armed ambush carried out by Al Qaeda elements in the Wadi Imran area of Abyan Governorate, resulting in the killing of two soldiers and injuring three others on Monday morning.
The sources confirmed that extremist elements opened fire on a military patrol belonging to the Southern forces operating as part of the “Swords of the East” operation, near the stone crusher factory in the mountains of Wadi Imran.
According to the Associated Press, this is the first attack since the announcement of the death of the group’s leader earlier this month in Yemen.
According to a statement from the Southern Armed Forces, affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, the militants set up an ambush for a security patrol in the area, leading to hours-long gun battles and the burning of a military vehicle.
The statement noted that the ambush coincided with intensified attacks by Southern forces in recent weeks on Al Qaeda strongholds in Wadi Imran.
“Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” claimed responsibility for the attack.
Areas in Mudia, south of the city of Al-Ain, have been witnessing sporadic clashes between Al-Qaeda elements and Southern forces for about a year and a half, reflecting a state of instability and tension in the region.
In the same vein, a total of 14 individuals were either dead or wounded due to clashes between the Yemeni army and the Houthi group in the Marib governorate, northeast of Yemen.
A Yemeni military source informed Sputnik that “clashes erupted between a force from the Yemeni army and armed members of the Houthis in the Bilq front, south of Marib, accompanied by mutual artillery shelling.”
The source added that “the clashes, which lasted for hours between the two sides, resulted in the killing of two soldiers and the injury of 4 others, while 8 Houthi militants were killed and several others wounded.”
