Al Qaeda kills nine Yemeni pro-government fighters: officials

DUBAI: A bomb attack on Friday claimed by Al Qaeda members killed at least nine pro-government fighters at a barracks in southern Yemen, two military officials said.

An explosive-laden vehicle targeted a site of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group allied with the government, said STC spokesperson Mohammed al-Naqib.

The attack in Abyan province killed at least nine fighters and wounded 13 others, Naqib said, blaming Al-Qaeda.

The toll was expected to climb due to the severity of the injuries, he told AFP.

A second military official confirmed the attack in the Mudiyah district but gave a higher toll of at least 11 killed.

Al Qaeda claimed the operation in a statement, saying a bomber detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at the military post, according to the US-based SITE intelligence group.

Yemen is a hotbed for groups such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered by the United States to be the group's most dangerous offshoot.

AQAP frequently attacks both Yemeni security forces and Western targets.

It has claimed numerous high-profile attacks in the United States and Europe — including the 2015 assault on Charlie Hebdo magazine in France's capital that killed 12 people — although these have declined in recent years.

In March, AQAP announced that Saad al-Awlaki, a Yemeni national wanted by the United States, had taken the helm of the organisation after the death of its former leader, Khalid Batarfi, following a long illness.

Long on the front line of the war against Al Qaeda, Yemen erupted into conflict in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa.

Born in 2009 from the merger of Al-Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of the war.

But it is now just one of many armed movements in southern Yemen, including the Daesh group and UAE-trained separatist groups that back the internationally recognised government against the Houthis.