Sana’a: Yemen’s air force killed five suspected Al Qaida militants in a raid on Tuesday on a convoy carrying weapons and ammunition, a local government official said.
The assault comes as part of a major anti-Al Qaida offensive launched on April 29.
“A three-truck convoy belonging to Al Qaida was targeted by the Yemeni air force in Bayhan, a road linking Shabwa and Marib” provinces, the official said.
“The cargo caught fire and five Al Qaida militants were killed,” the source said.
Witnesses added that, shortly after the raid, a Yemeni helicopter landed at the site of the blast and arrested a tribesman who was searching for undamaged weapons among the rubble.
On Monday, a drone strike killed six Al Qaida suspects in Marib.
The army says it has inflicted heavy losses on Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen by the US as the network’s deadliest franchise, over the past two weeks.
The interior ministry said this week that checkpoints were set up around the provinces of Sana’a, Ibb, Baida, Lahij and Marib to prevent the entry of jihadists fleeing the offensive focused on Shabwa and Abyan — both in the south.
AQAP took advantage of a 2011 uprising that forced veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of southern and eastern Yemen.
The army recaptured several major towns in 2012 but has struggled to reassert control in rural areas, despite the backing of militiamen recruited among local tribes.
