AL-MUKALLA: A Yemeni soldier was killed and four other people were wounded on Monday after Al-Qaeda attacked a military vehicle in Abyan province, southern Yemen, as the militants escalated their guerrilla warfare against Yemeni troops.
A Yemeni officer from the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council told Arab News that Al-Qaeda militants threw a grenade at a military vehicle in Omaran Valley in the Moudia district of Abyan, killing a soldier and injuring four other people — two soldiers and two civilians who were walking near the vehicle.
According to the officer, who requested anonymity, Al-Qaeda operatives fled the scene after the attack and hid in the rugged Omaran valley.
The attack occurred two days after Al-Qaeda militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a vehicle transporting southern forces in the Moudia district, killing two soldiers.
On Oct. 15, a senior military commander from the Shabwa Defense Forces was killed when an Al-Qaeda roadside bomb ripped through his vehicle in Al-Mousenah in the southern province of Shabwa.
Yemeni military forces launched an offensive in late 2023, targeting Al-Qaeda’s strongholds in the mountains and valleys of Abyan and Shabwa.
For the first time in years, troops pushed deeper into Al-Qaeda hideouts and military bases in Abyan’s Omaran valley, as well as clearing Al-Qaeda militants from Shabwa’s mountains and valleys.
Instead of engaging in direct combat with the advancing troops, Al-Qaeda fighters used guerrilla tactics, attacking them and planting roadside bombs that killed more than 120 soldiers and injured over 200 others.
