SANAA – Gunmen killed at least five Yemeni soldiers yesterday in a suspected al-Qaeda ambush of a military convoy in the south, the third assault on state targets in five weeks blamed on the group’s resurgent regional arm.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen previously focused on high-impact strikes against Western and Saudi targets, but appears now to be targeting government forces in response to enhanced Yemen-US security co-ordination and a government crackdown.
“There was an ambush targeting the soldiers’ vehicle and five were killed and a sixth was wounded. There is suspicion that al-Qaeda was behind the operation,” an official in the southern province of Shabwa said.
Yemen came to the forefront of Western security concerns after al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based regional wing claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound aircraft in December.
Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Centre, said he expected attacks on both Western targets in Yemen and local security forces to continue.
“It is basically reflecting their renewed strategy that they are going to fight the government, which has allied itself with the Saudis and the Americans,” he said. – (Reuters)