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3 security personnel killed in suspected Qaida ambush in Yemen

14 May 2014 20:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Three security personnel were killed and two others wounded on Wednesday in an suspected al- Qaida ambush in Yemen's southeastern province of al-Bayda, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"Gunmen believed to be from al-Qaida carried out an ambush attack on a security patrol in the city of al-Bayda. As a result, three security members were killed and two others wounded in the armed attack," the provincial police officer said on condition of anonymity.

Just a few hours after the attack, troops of a mechanized army brigade retaliated by firing artillery shells on two al-Qaida-held houses in the same region, the police source added.

Four suspected al-Qaida militants were detained on Wednesday in an operation involving both army and police units against al-Qaida hideouts in al-Bayda province. The suspects were airlifted to Yemen's capital Sanaa, a military official told Xinhua.

Earlier in the day, a total of 17 suspected al-Qaida militants and 11 army soldiers were killed in clashes near the former al- Qaida stronghold town of Azzan in the southeastern province of Shabwa.

The Yemeni military and security forces have recently intensified operations against suspected al-Qaida strongholds throughout the country, killing many non-Yemeni al-Qaida suspects and recapturing territories in Azzan and Mahfad, two of al-Qaida's main bastions.

However, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, also known as AQAP and is considered a major threat to the Yemeni government and neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia, has vowed to hit back in Yemen' s main cities, including Sanaa.

AQAP militants have retaliated by launching suicide car attacks and roadside bombings across the impoverished Arab country.