Suspected al Qaeda gunmen have killed four Yemeni soldiers and wounded at least seven in an attack on a military convoy near the Qaeda-held southern city of Zinjibar, a security official said on Monday.
"A convoy of reinforcements fell in an ambush by al Qaeda elements one kilometre (less than a mile) from Zinjibar. Four soldiers, including a colonel, were killed and a number of others were wounded," the official said.
A medical source said that seven soldiers wounded in the attack had been admitted to the Jumhuriya hospital in the main southern city of Aden.
Four other suspected al Qaeda fighters were killed in overnight fighting with soldiers in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, another security source said.
But a source close to the gunmen who have taken control of much of Zinjibar said that only two were killed.
On Sunday, dissident army commanders accused veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh of surrendering Abyan province to "terrorists."
The opposition Common Forum charged that he had "delivered Zinjibar to groups that he has formed and armed, to continue to utilise the spectre of al Qaeda to frighten regional and international parties."
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