Attack Of 5 Al Qaeda Members Using Suicide Bombing Vest Kills 4 Yemeni Soldiers

JAKARTA - Yemeni government soldiers parried the Al-Qaeda attack in the south of the country on Tuesday local time. The shootout killed nine people from both sides.

"Our troops managed to thwart a large-scale terrorist attack launched this morning by members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization against the headquarters of the government complex in Abyan Province," said the internationally recognized Commander of the Yemeni Government Forces Brigade Nasr Atef Al-Machouchi,

in a press release quoted by AFP, Wednesday, October 22.

He said the attackers detonated two car bombs, before infiltrated the compound where they were intercepted.

"Five suicide bombers wearing explosive [rompi] belts" were killed along with four soldiers, he added.

Medical sources in Abyan confirmed the deaths of the four soldiers to AFP and reported 15 people were injured.

The internationally recognized Yemeni government stood in the southern city of Aden after Iran-backed Houthi rebels expelled them from the capital Sanaa in 2014.

Washington once considered the group, known as Al-Qaeda in Jazirah Arab (AQAP), the most dangerous branch of the militant network.

Born in 2009 of the merger of Al-Qaeda factions in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, AQAP grew and developed amid the chaos of Yemen's war, which for more than a decade has brought together Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia-led coalitions supporting the government.

However, attacks by the jihadist group, both against government forces and rebels, have decreased in recent years.