An explosive device detonated and killed six soldiers loyal to a UAE-backed secessionist group on Monday in southern Yemen, a military spokesman said, with the latest attack attributed to al-Qaeda militants there poor Arab.
The explosion hit a military vehicle as it passed through a mountainous area in Modiyah district in the southern province of Abyan, said Mohamed al-Naqib, spokesman for the Southern Armed Forces, the military wing of the Southern Transitional Council, secessionist.
Eleven other soldiers were injured, he added.
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The UAE-backed council controls much of southern Yemen. This is at odds with the internationally recognized government, although they are allies in Yemen's years-long war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control the north and the capital Sanaa.
This is a location map of Yemen with its capital Sanaa. (AP Photo)
Al-Naqib blamed the attack on Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
AQAP is considered one of the most dangerous branches of the terrorist group still active more than a decade after the assassination of its founder Osama bin Laden.
It is active in several regions of Yemen, taking advantage of the civil war in the country to consolidate its presence in this country located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
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Yemen's ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government into exile.