SUSPECTED militants have killed 20 members of Yemen's security forces in a dawn raid on a checkpoint in an attack officials said bore the hallmarks of the local branch of al-Qaeda.
Yemen is dogged by internal conflicts and chronic poverty and the attack highlights the lack of stability in the Western-allied nation, which shares a border with top global oil exporter Saudi Arabia and lies next to major shipping lanes.
The Yemeni interior minister suspended senior security officials in the eastern province of Hadramout where the attack took place and ordered an immediate investigation, official news agency Saba reported.
A local official said the troops, who belonged to a paramilitary unit, were mostly asleep when the raiders attacked the checkpoint, some 75 miles east of the provincial capital al-Mukalla.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, in which one person was also wounded.
A security source in the capital Sanaa said two members of the security forces had also been seized and taken away by the militants.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article