Five Yemeni Soldiers Killed in Qaida Ambush

Al-Qaida militants killed five Yemeni soldiers and wounded two others along with a civilian on Friday when they attacked a military convoy in restive southern Abyan province, officials said.

"We were hit today in an al-Qaida ambush which resulted in the killing of five soldiers and two others being wounded," a security official told Agence France Presse.

The militants used rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in the ambush which took place in the town of Loder, the official said, adding that two military vehicles were burned in the attack.

The army vehicles had been escorting a lorry carrying food supplies to military bases in the area.

Loder health department chief Mostafa Ahmed confirmed to AFP that the bodies of five soldiers were taken into a hospital morgue.

Ahmed also said that a civilian who was passing by at the time was wounded in the attack.

Abyan and adjacent Shabwa province have become major fields of operation for al-Qaida as the central government in Sanaa struggles to impose its control on the region's heavily armed tribes.