One of the assailants was injured in the attack and fierce confrontations ensued as more military reinforcements arrived. This came a day after 13 soldiers were killed in a suspected Al-Qaeda ambush.

In another area in the restive south, police defused a bomb planted in the car of Col. Nasser Mahdi Abdullah, head of Criminal Investigation Police in Abyan. The colonel’s children spotted the bomb and informed their father.

Earlier, while inspecting the venue where 13 soldiers were killed on Friday, Col. Mohsen Juzilan, infantry brigade commander in Abyan, and Awadh Ali Awadh, secretary general of Lawdar local council, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a group of gunmen attacked them. A soldier, who was escorting the officials, was also killed and three others were injured.

In another incident that bears the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda, a senior army official in Hadramout survived a roadside bomb. Abdurrahman Al-Halili, head of Al-Khasha’a Brigade in Hadramout, was en route from Seiyun to the military site when a bomb blew up near the historical towering city of Shibam. He was safe but the explosion smashed the windows of his car.