Seven Yemen troops killed in suspected Qaeda attack

AFP/Sanaa

A policeman keeps watch as Yemenis buy clothes and sweets during preparations for Eid al-Fitr at a traditional market in Sanaa yesterday

Seven Yemeni soldiers were killed and six others wounded yesterday in clashes with suspected Al Qaeda forces in the southern province of Abyan, a military officer said. The fighting took place near Dofes, a village south of the provincial capital of Zinjibar that has been occupied by extremist elements since the end of May, the source said. “Al Qaeda fighters hidden in a wooded mountainous area opened fire on army units heading from Dofes to Zinjibar to try to rejoin the 25th Mechanised Brigade,” which is encircled by the Islamists, the source said. “Seven of our soldiers were killed and six others wounded in clashes which continued for several hours,” he added. At least one attacker was killed, according to a source at the Al-Razi hospital in Jaar, another Abyan village controlled by Al Qaeda. “We received the body of an Al Qaeda fighter killed in the fighting near Dofes,” the hospital source said, identifying the man as Omar al-Marqab from the northern Al Jawf province. In a related incident, the pilot of a military helicopter carrying supplies to the 25th Mechanised Brigade was wounded in the hand when the chopper was hit by ground fire, a comrade reported. And two soldiers were killed and four wounded in a Friday night ambush as they patrolled oil installations in Shabwa province, a local official said. Since May, Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula has been taking military advantage of the central government’s weak grip on power, as veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh battles a political movement seeking his ouster. On Tuesday, seven soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 30 others wounded in a suspected Al Qaeda attack on the Dofes-based Brigade 201 camp, according to a report obtained by AFP from an army officer. Reprisal raids that followed killed dozens of suspected militants from the Islamist network, according to local and medical sources. An official in the region reported 35 Al Qaeda loyalists killed.