Yemen govt troops kill six Al Qaeda suspects

Four soldiers were also killed in the operation on Tuesday at a farm west of Mukalla, the port city and capital of the province of Hadramout, the military said on its Facebook page. The raid was supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition that has been fighting on the side of Hadi in a war against Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. 

Yemeni officials on Tuesday reported that six militants were killed in the raid, while four others were captured. “We launched an operation against Al-Qaeda early this morning in the village of Hamra, west of Mukalla,” a security official told AFP . “It was a pre-emptive operation carried out with the support of warplanes of the Arab coalition,” he said, adding that four suspected extremists were also captured. “(The extremists) continue to pose a threat to Mukalla and further revenge attacks can’t be excluded,” he added. Al Qaeda militants took advantage of the civil war which began last year, seizing parts of southern Yemen, including Mukalla, before Yemeni government soldiers and Arab coalition troops drove them out. 

The militants have since dispersed into the desert or have gone into hiding, but continue to launch occasional attacks on state officials and institutions. The US has used drones to eliminate its leaders.