Al-Qaeda attack south Yemen kills two soldiers

Two Yemeni troops were killed on Sunday during an attack in the country's south by suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists، officials said.

Under the condition of anonymity، a Yemeni government security official told AFP that the military checkpoint in the oil-producing province of Shabwa was the target of the dawn strike.


Another Yemeni official reported that "two jihadist fighters were also injured but they managed to escape."

Yemen erupted into conflict in 2014، a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened on behalf of Yemen's internationally recognised government the year after Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured the nation's capital، Sanaa.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula، which the United States regards as the jihadist group's most dangerous offshoot، is one of the jihadist groups that thrive in the poor nation.

In recent years، AQAP assaults on rebel and government forces have decreased.

A leading member of the group، Hamad bin Hamoud al-Tamimi، was killed in late February in the south of Yemen in a suspected US airstrike.

The war in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands and resulted in the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

But fighting has largely died down since a six-month UN-brokered ceasefire that began in April last year