Al-Qaeda extremists on Friday killed 19 soldiers in an attack on an army base in southern Yemen, security officials said, a day after deadly assaults by rebels and a militant 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 militants.
“The al-Qaeda gunmen took advantage of what happened [on Thursday] in Aden and launched an assault on al-Mahfad base and clashed with soldiers,” a government security official said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Military reinforcements were sent ... and the gunmen were killed while others were driven out with air support from the [Saudi-led] 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.
The militant group said in a statement that it had “blown up” buildings inside the base and “withdrew safely.”
Security analyst Aleksandar Mitreski said that the militant actions appeared “opportunistic.”
“Al-Qaeda has neither the capability nor the strategic appetite to open a new front in south Yemen,” said Mitreski, a researcher at the University of Sydney. “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 Islamic State (IS) group and other extremists have flourished in the chaos of the war between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Shiite Houthi rebels.
The US considers AQAP the global militant network’s most dangerous branch and has waged a long-running drone war against its leaders.
Two separate attacks by the Houthis and militants on Thursday hit security forces in Yemen’s second city, Aden, killing at least 49 people, many of them newly trained police cadets, officials said.
Thursday’s first attack was a suicide car bombing carried out by militants on a police station, which killed 13 police officers and wounded several others, a security source said.
The second was carried out by the Houthis, who said that they launched a drone and a ballistic missile at a training camp west of Aden that killed dozens.
The aerial attack hit as senior commanders were overseeing a parade for newly graduated cadets at al-Jala Camp, 20km from the center of Aden.
The IS group said that it was responsible for the suicide bombing on the police station, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
The Yemeni government on Thursday said that the “source and purpose [of the attacks] were the same.”
“The two attacks prove the Houthi militia rebels and other terrorist groups are sharing roles and complementing each other in a war against the Yemeni people,” a statement said.
A Houthi rebel spokesman said that Thursday’s attack was an “intelligence operation” in which “a new kind of missile that we have not unveiled was used, as well as a drone, providing support in a big way.”
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