A bomb attack on Thursday killed four members of a security force, including a senior officer, in a war-torn province in southern Yemen where al-Qaeda is particularly active in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqpa), a security source told AFP.
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The attack targeted a UAE-trained force operating in Yemen in 2015 as part of a Saudi-led military coalition to support the government against the Houthis, rebels based near Iran.
“A senior security official and three soldiers were killed in an explosion aimed at them in southern Abyan province,” a Yemeni security official told AFP on condition not to be identified.
According to him, the convoy entered a “high-voltage zone” where clashes with fighters from Aqpa, which the US considers the most dangerous branch of the al-Qaeda network, regularly erupted.
The attack on the three soldiers and Abdellatif al-Sayed, the commander of the “security belt” forces in Abyan province, was not immediately claimed.
Funded, trained and armed by the United Arab Emirates, the “Security Belt” is responsible for protecting the southern regions of particular interest to Abu Dhabi, with access to the sea and the Horn of Africa.
This force, linked to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist movement, has played a large role in the fight against jihadists in Yemen, in addition to its involvement in the anti-Houthi coalition.
The STC issued a statement confirming the death of Abdellatif al-Sayed.
Thursday’s blast came more than a week after an unreported attack killed five soldiers in the same province.
In June, two soldiers were killed in Chabwa, a neighboring southern province.
In isolated cases, the jihadists are exploiting the development of the conflict between the rebels and the government.
Their latest attacks come in a context of relative calm between the two protagonists of the conflict in Yemen.
This poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula is suffering from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. The war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and millions displaced.