Aden: Two Yemeni soldiers and a suspected al Qaeda gunman have been killed in a clash following an ambush in the southern province of Shabwa, security and tribal sources said on Friday.
The gunmen ambushed an Army vehicle late Thursday on the main road in Al-Aram, a security official said, adding that the soldiers fired back at the assailants.
He said two soldiers were killed in the confrontation and another was wounded.
A tribal source, meanwhile, said that one attacker was shot dead in the clash and four were wounded.
In late April, the Army launched a ground offensive against al Qaeda in Shabwa and nearby Abyan province.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
AQAP is considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network because of its role in failed attacks against the United States.
