Al Qaeda militants killed seven policemen Sunday in an attack on a checkpoint in Yemen’s southeast, a security official said, a day after clashes between the army and militants left 40 dead.
“A group of Al-Qaeda terrorists in two vehicles opened machinegun fire on a checkpoint, killing seven policemen” in Shibam, a town in the province of Hadramawt, the official told AFP.
Another security official told AFP that suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen riding a motorbike shot and wounded Colonel Abboud Fadhl, an intelligence officer, in the leg late Saturday in the southern province of Lahij.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants from the group Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) have launched a wave of attacks in the region since former president Ali Abdullah Saleh handed power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in February.
On Saturday, heavy fighting between the army and Islamist fighters who tried to take over several military posts killed 40 people — 28 soldiers and 12 militants — in Lahij province, officials said.