SANAA: Four Yemeni soldiers were killed and another wounded when armed men attacked a checkpoint in the restive south on Tuesday, a security official said.
The official said the identity of the perpetrators was not clear. The attack took place on the road that links the provinces of Abyan and Hadramaut.
A website linked to the defense ministry (www.26sept.net) reported that 10 armed “saboteurs” ambushed the checkpoint.
The army has launched a manhunt for the assailants, it quoted a security official as saying.
Local sources said that the attackers were supporters of Tarek Al-Fadhli, an Islamist leader and former key ally of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who called a demonstration on Friday to protest the killing of 16 people at a separatist rally the previous day.
Fadhli’s house has been surrounded by security troops and the authorities are demanding that he hand himself in or leave the country, the sources added.
