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SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A firefight between Yemeni troops and al-Qaida fighters killed one soldier and four suspected militants, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday.
The ministry said the military targeted a house where it believed militants stayed in the southeastern province of Hadramawt. It said five suspected militants were arrested after the overnight clashes that lasted until early Sunday.
Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, said the firefight killed three soldiers and wounded six. The different accounts could not be immediately reconciled.
At least 1,200 troops have been sent to Hadramawt over the past days as reinforcement in the offensive against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which the U.S. considers to be the group's most dangerous offshoot.
Earlier in August, al-Qaida militants killed 15 soldiers in Hadramawt after seizing them from a public bus in apparent retaliation to the army offensive against the group.
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