DUBAI: Forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government said on Tuesday they had repelled an attack by Al-Qaeda in the country’s south that left nine people dead on both sides.
“Our forces managed to foil a large-scale terrorist attack launched this morning by members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization against the headquarters of the government complex... in Abyan province,” Nasr Atef Al-Machouchi, commander of the targeted brigade, said in a press release.
He said the attackers detonated two car bombs, before infiltrating the compound where they were confronted.
“Five suicide bombers wearing explosive belts” were killed along with four soldiers, he added.
A medical source in Abyan confirmed the deaths of the four soldiers to AFP and reported 15 people wounded.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government established itself in the southern city of Aden after Iran-backed Houthi rebels drove them out of the capital Sanaa in 2014.
Washington once regarded the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the militant network’s most dangerous branch.
Born in 2009 from the merger of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of Yemen’s war, which for over a decade has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.
But attacks by the jihadist group, both against government forces and rebels, have decreased in recent years.