Militants kill 4 soldiers in south Yemen

Four Yemeni soldiers have been killed in an attack by unknown militants against a military vehicle in south of the country, officials say.

The gunmen opened fire as the vehicle was on its way to an army checkpoint near a gas export terminal in the port town of Balhaf in the province of Shabwa, an official said on Wednesday.

The militants fled the scene after injuring three other soldiers.

“The attack killed four soldiers and wounded three others,” the unnamed official said, adding that the country’s army forces were hunting for the assailants.

Other reports, quoting different officials, put the number of the injured at seven.

Yemeni security forces frequently come under attack by gunmen especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

On Friday, suspected al-Qaeda militants killed 15 soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint in the province of Hadhramaut.

In mid-January, Abd al-Ghani al-Muqalih, the general manager of a Yemeni military-affiliated corporation, was killed in a drive-by shooting by two gunmen in Hadhramaut.

On August 31, 2013, Yemeni Prime Minister Mohammed Salim Basindawa escaped an assassination attempt by unknown gunmen, who opened fire on his convoy in the capital, Sana’a.

In December 2012, two armed men killed Lieutenant Colonel Mutei Baqatyan, a member of the country’s state security, in an attack in the southern city of Mukalla.

Yemeni Defense Minister Major General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed was also seriously injured and 12 people were killed in a car bomb attack that targeted his motorcade in the heart of the capital in September 2012.