ADEN: Al Qaeda gunmen killed 19 soldiers in an attack on an army base in southern Yemen on Friday, security officials said, a day after deadly assaults by rebels and a bomber.
The gunmen stormed Al Mahfad base in Abyan province and remained inside for several hours before military reinforcements came, three security officials said, adding that the soldiers were killed in clashes with the fighters.
“The Qaeda gunmen took advantage of what happened (Thursday) in Aden and launched an assault on Al Mahfad base and clashed with soldiers,” a government security official said.
“Military reinforcements were sent... and the gunmen were killed while others were driven out with air support from the coalition, in an operation that lasted hours,” the official said.
“At least 19 soldiers were killed and others wounded.”
The other two officials confirmed both the details and the death toll.
Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.
In a statement, the fighter group said it had “blown up” buildings inside the base and “withdrew safely”, but did not claim a death toll for that operation.
Security analyst Aleksandar Mitreski said the fighter actions appeared “opportunistic”.
“Al Qaeda has neither the capability nor the strategic appetite to open a new front in south Yemen,” Mitreski, a researcher at the University of Sydney, said.
“We may see other sporadic attacks in the future motivated by Al Qaeda’s desire to remain a relevant actor in the Yemeni conflict.”
AQAP, the IS group and other fighters have flourished in the chaos of the war between Yemen’s government and the Ansar Allah fighters.
The United States considers AQAP the global network’s most dangerous branch and has waged a long-running drone war against its leaders.
On Thursday, two separate attacks by the Ansar Allah and fighters hit security forces in Yemen’s second city Aden, killing at least 49 people, many of them newly trained police cadets, officials said.
The first attack on Thursday was a suicide car bombing carried out by fighters on a police station
that killed 13 police officers and wounded several others, a security source said. — AFP
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