Tribesmen, army clash in Yemen, 8 killed

At least eight people have been killed in Yemen during clashes between tribesmen and military forces in the eastern city of Ma’rib.

According to Yemeni security sources on Saturday, six soldiers and two militants lost their lives after the armed tribesmen attacked a military base in Ma’rib, seizing several armored vehicles and tanks.

The clashes between Yemen’s military and tribesmen initially broke out in Ma’rib on Thursday night after the militants suspected that some army troops were trying to join Shia Ansarullah revolutionaries, who have taken positions on the outskirts of the eastern city for several weeks.

The Shia revolutionaries have posed a serious challenge to the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has for long destabilized the impoverished Arab country.

Over the past months, al-Qaeda militants have frequently carried out attacks on Yemen’s security forces and have been also locked in deadly battles with Ansarullah fighters.

Yemen’s central government has so far failed to confront the terrorist threats. Ansarullah fighters, however, have intervened to fill the vacuum and driven al-Qaeda militants out of many areas in the country.

The Shia revolutionaries also played a major role in the ouster of Yemen’s former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2012.