SANAA: Four Yemeni soldiers were killed and nine others wounded in an ambush in the southern province of Lahij, a security official told AFP on Tuesday.
"Four soldiers were killed and nine others wounded late on Monday when unidentified armed elements ambushed a military vehicle in Halmayn," in Lahij province, the official said.
The vehicle carrying the soldiers came under fire from gunmen in the Halmayn region and crashed into a lorry, the same source said, adding that the soldiers were on their way to fix a sabotaged telecommunications cable.
He did not specify whether the collision or the gunfire had caused the casualties.
Security services are currently searching for the assailants, Hamlayn security chief Colonel Ali Muthanna told the defense ministry’s news website, vowing that they would be brought to justice.
Such attacks are on the rise in the country’s south, which is thought to have become a regrouping ground for Al-Qaeda fighters.
South Yemen, where many residents complain of discrimination by the Sanaa government in the allocation of resources, is the site of frequent protests and periodic unrest.
The south was independent from 1967 until 1990 when it united with the north. Secession in 1994 sparked a short-lived conflict that ended when the south was overrun by northern troops.
