Al-Qaida militants shell Yemeni troops with rockets

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-07 20:30:55|Editor: ying
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ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch shelled a military base manned by UAE-backed Yemeni troops with several rockets in Abyan on Monday, a security official told Xinhua.

The al-Qaida militants fired a number of Grad rockets and targeted a coastguard base manned by UAE-backed Yemeni troops in the coastal city of Shuqra in Abyan province, causing injuries among soldiers, the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

"About five rockets were fired by al-Qaida terrorists and landed inside the coastguard base, causing heavy damage there," the local security source said.

The attack resulted in injuring several newly-recruited soldiers who joined the anti-terror campaign against bastions of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in southern Yemen, according to the Yemeni source.

An army officer near the scene confirmed to Xinhua that the al-Qaida attack aimed at bombing the command and control room inside the coastguard base, but it missed the target.

On Thursday, hundreds of elite Yemeni troops backed by the United Arab Emirates and America launched a fresh anti-terror campaign and targeted al-Qaida hideouts in neighboring southeastern province of Shabwa.

Tribal sources said that scores of mid-level al-Qaida commanders along with bodyguards fled their strongholds in Shabwa and arrived to other hiding places in Abyan's rugged mountainous areas.

In recent days, hundreds of elite counter-terrorism forces recently trained by the United Arab Emirates were deployed in different areas of Abyan province in an attempt to track fleeing al-Qaida operatives and storm their hideouts.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.

Yemen's government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.

UN statistics showed that more than 8,000 people have been killed in Yemen's conflict, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in 2015.

The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera outbreak, where about 5,000 cases are reported every day.

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