Two killed as Yemeni police clash with suspected al-Qaeda militants

Jul 30, 2009, 15:14 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni soldier and a suspected al-Qaeda militant were killed after Yemeni security forces clashed with militants in the north-central province of Marib on Thursday, local sources said.

The sources told the German Press Agency dpa that armed men ambushed an army personnel carrier in the Al Shabwan district of Marib, killing one soldier.

Security forces, sent to chase the attacker, killed one of them, the sources said.

Local officials in Marib, around 190 kilometres north-west of the capital Sana'a, said the slain militant was a suspected member of a group affiliated with the terror al-Qaeda network.

Marib is one of four desert provinces where security forces are hunting down al-Qaeda militants as authorities try to counter the group's growth in the country.

Authorities believe that dozens of members of al-Qaeda and other Jihadist groups are taking shelter in remote areas of Marib, al-Jawf, Shabwa and Abyan provinces where they have found support among tribal chieftains.

Yemen, an impoverished country on the south-western tip of the Arabian Peninsula, allied itself with the US-led 'war on terror' following the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.

It has since pursued supporters and members of al-Qaeda and put scores of them on trial.

On July 13, a Yemeni state security court sentenced six al-Qaeda operatives to death and 10 others to jail terms of up to 15 years after it convicted them of links to a string of attacks, including one in which two Belgian tourists were killed last year.