ZCZC
BFF-25
YEMEN-CONFLICT-ABYAN
Gunmen kill 5 south Yemen separatists: security official
DUBAI, Dec 7, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed five south
Yemen separatists in Abyan province on Monday, in the terror group’s biggest
attack in the region for months, a secessionist security official said.
The five members of the Security Belt separatist force, which is dominated
by the Southern Transitional Council (STC), were killed at dawn on the
outskirts of Lawdar city, the official told AFP.
“It was gunmen believed to be from Al-Qaeda who launched the attack and
managed to escape,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A medic in Lawdar confirmed the death toll, while Al-Qaeda has yet to
issue any statements on the attack.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has thrived in the chaos of Yemen’s
civil war between an internationally recognised government that is supported
by a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels.
The United States, which considers AQAP the terror group’s most dangerous
branch, has carried out a campaign of drone strikes against its leaders for
the past two decades.
Monday’s attack was the biggest in southern Yemen since August, when Al-
Qaeda killed a dentist in Al-Bayda accused of guiding US drone strikes
against its militants and later that month blew up the medical centre in
which he worked.
Security Belt forces played a decisive role in fighting against Al-Qaeda
and the Islamic State group, which were forced to withdraw from southern
urban centres.
The separatist STC wants the south to secede from the rest of the country,
even while it is allied with the central government in a fight against their
common foe, the Huthis, in the civil war.
The government and rebels have been locked in a five-year-old war that has
killed tens of thousands — triggering what the UN terms the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1505 hrs