SANAA: Gunmen suspected of belonging to al Qaeda killed a senior army officer and a soldier when they ambushed their convoy in Yemen’s eastern province of Maarib on Saturday, a government official said.
Two other officers and one soldier were injured in Saturday’s attack, which occurred as they were returning from a security mission in the troubled province, the official said.
"Battalion leader Mohamed Saleh Al-Shaief was killed in an ambush by gunmen believed to be members of al Qaeda," the official told Reuters.
Also in Maarib, senior al Qaeda member Ghaleb Al-Zaydi who was on Sanaa’s top wanted list gave himself up to the authorities, according to a government official. Zaydi is accused of providing shelter to al Qaeda members in Maarib.
Two weeks ago a Yemeni mediator who was also Maarib’s deputy governor died in an errant airstrike targeting the group, prompting a violent reaction from his kinsmen.
Yemen’s foreign minister said this week Yemen was investigating whether the strike could have come from a drone and, if so, who operated it.
Earlier this year, the Yemeni government declared war on al Qaeda, whose regional wing is based in the impoverished Arab country.
Yemen also faces growing unrest from southern separatists and only recently ended the latest round of fighting in a war with northern rebels.
Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing catapulted the country to the forefront of Western security concerns after it claimed responsibility for a botched attempt to bomb a US bound plane in December.
In Yemen’s northern province of Amran six people died in clashes late on Friday and the situation there remained extremely tense, local officials said.
The officials said the fighting in northern the Harf Sufyan district late on Friday was the settling of old scores between northern rebels, known as the Houthis after the clan of their leader, and tribesmen loyal to the government.
A local committee for the implementation of a February ceasefire between the rebels and the government was on its way to the region to resolve the conflict, the officials said.
