Baku-APA. Unknown gunmen on Saturday ambushed a Yemeni army patrol in the southeastern province of Hadramout, killing at least four soldiers and wounding three others, a government official told Xinhua, APA reports.
"A military patrol carrying out a search operation for al-Qaida suspects was attacked by machine gunfire in the Qatan region of Hadramout province," the local government source said on condition of anonymity.
According to an initial death toll given by the military intelligence officers, the attackers shot dead four soldiers and wounded three others in the surprise attack.
A security official told Xinhua that army soldiers backed by units of the special security forces were sweeping the area following the ambush.
The attack is the latest in a string of bombings and killings targeting senior Yemeni military and security officers and some foreigners in the last few months.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack yet, but militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot are often behind such attacks and assassination attempts, mostly in the country's southern regions.
The al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which emerged in January 2009, is considered as the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and its neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
On Dec. 5, 12 al-Qaida militants launched a deadly attack on the Yemeni defense ministry, leaving 56 people dead and more than 200 others injured.
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