SANAA: Three soldiers and a suspected Al-Qaeda militant have been killed and several others injured in an ambush and subsequent clashes in the desert province of Marib in central Yemen, provincial officials said Friday.
The officials told Arab News that the clashes erupted Thursday evening after militants believed to be members of Al-Qaeda ambushed a military personnel carrier and killed two soldiers.
Marib, located around 190 km north east of the capital Sanaa, is one of four desert provinces where security forces are hunting down Al-Qaeda operatives as authorities try to counter the group’s growth in the country.
Authorities believe that dozens of members of Al-Qaeda and other Jihadist groups are taking shelter in remote areas of Marib, Al-Jawf, Shabwa and Abyan provinces where they have found support among tribal chieftains.
“Terrorists ambushed the vehicle as it drove on a highway linking Marib with Hadhramout province,” a provincial official said on condition of anonymity.
He said the assailants also seized ammunition and military equipment from the truck.
Anti-terrorism units were sent later in the day from the provincial city of Marib to hunt down the assailants, the official said, adding that the forces clashed with the militants in the Al Shabwan district, around 15 km east of Marib city, killing one of them and injuring several others.
A police trooper was also killed in the clashes, the official said.
Marib has been the scene of several terrorist attacks on foreigners and state oil installations in the past few years, including the suicide car bomb attack that left eight Spanish tourists dead in July 2007.
