10 Yemeni soldiers killed in Al Qaeda attack near Aden airport

Twenty fighters from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula launched a bomb and gun assault on a special forces base, taking over one of the buildings before all being killed.

Armed Yemeni men stand next to a destroyed vehicle following an Al Qaeda attack on a special forces military base near Aden airport on July 6, 2016. Saleh Al Obeidi/AFP

ADEN // At least ten Yemeni soldiers were killed and eight others wounded in Aden on Wednesday when 20 Al Qaeda fighters attacked a special forces camp adjoining the city’s airport.

All of the militants were killed in the attack and the clashes that followed.

Fighters from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) disguised in Yemeni army uniforms began their assault at around 5am, detonating two car bombs at Al Solban camp’s main entrance.

“A car bomb targeted the main gate of the camp and killed four soldiers, before another car entered the camp through the main gate and exploded inside,” a source in Aden’s police office told The National.

“But the main attack took place at the rear of the camp, where some AQAP fighters wearing explosive belts blew themselves up and others launched a gun assault on troops guarding the back entrance before entering through it”.

Clashes broke out between Yemeni soldiers and the AQAP fighters, with the attackers storming a building inside the camp and taking control of it, the source said.

After about an hour “military reinforcements, including soldiers and vehicles, began arriving at the camp and [eventually] killed all of the fighters inside the building”, the source said, adding that Emirati apache helicopters were involved in the operation.

The clashes continued until noon, with the troops exchanging rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire with the militants throughout the morning.

Since the liberation of Aden from Yemen’s Houthi rebels last July, extremist groups – including AQAP and ISIL – have launched a string of attacks against officials and military camps in the city.

Al Solban receives new recruits who have been trained by the Saudi-led coalition forces and is connected to Aden airport, which only reopened fully to commercial traffic in March.

Meanwhile in Marib province, a Houthi missile killed seven children and injured twelve others after striking a residential neighbourhood in a government-held district on the western outskirts of Marib city.

Salem Al Gadasi, a journalist based in Marib province, said the Katyusha missile targeted the children on Tuesday while they were playing in the outside yard of their home. It was fired from the Houthi-held district of Sirwah, west of Marib city.