Aden: Two Yemeni soldiers and a suspected Al Qaida gunman have been killed in a clash following an ambush in the southern province of Shabwa, security and tribal sources said on Friday.
The gunmen ambushed an army vehicle late Thursday on the main road in Al Aram, a security official said, adding that the soldiers fired back at the assailants.
He said two soldiers were killed in the confrontation and another was wounded.
A tribal source, meanwhile, said that one attacker was shot dead in the clash and four were wounded.
In late April, the army launched a ground offensive against Al Qaida in Shabwa and nearby Abyan province.
Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
AQAP is considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network because of its role in failed attacks against the United States.
In other violence, a gunman on a motorbike shot dead two men late Thursday in the port city of Aden, a police official said.
The assailant first opened fire at Hayak Abdul Wassei in Mansura district, killing him instantly. He then chased another man, Emad Al Zaidi, in the same street and shot him dead, the official said.
The unidentified attacker managed to escape, the official said, and the motives for the attack remain unknown.
Al Qaida militants are blamed for frequent attacks using motorbikes in which security personnel are targeted.
