SANAA (Agencies)
One Yemeni soldier was killed and seven others wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on two checkpoints in the eastern region of Hadramawt, hours after Yemeni forces clashed with protesters in the country's south, despite a security crackdown on the oil-producing region.
The gunmen carried out the two apparently coordinated attacks at around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Friday and fled shortly after, a police source told AFP on Saturday without elaborating.
An interior ministry official, who declined to be named, told AFP the attackers could have been drug smugglers.
The shootings came after several days of deadly clashes between security forces and protestors in southern Yemen.
At least 14 people have been wounded in five days of protests by youths in southern districts demanding army jobs.
Youths also attacked offices and businesses and television footage showed them burning tyres to block roads.
The unrest started in the area of Radfan in the central southern al-Dalea province last Sunday and spread the next day to the province of Lahj, which adjoins the province of Aden, home to the Arab country's key port and refinery.
The ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Yemen has seen a series of attacks by the jihadist network in recent years.
Last month, a schoolgirl and a policeman were killed when mortar fire targeting the U.S. embassy in Sanaa hit an adjacent school. That attack was claimed by al-Qaeda in a statement posted on an Islamist website. |
