Two soldiers killed in southeastern Yemen attacks

Two attacks by gunmen in the southeastern province of Hadramawt killed two Yemeni soldiers and wounded eight others, security sources said on Saturday.

Gunmen ambushed a military vehicle near the al-Qatn area on Friday, killing two soldiers and wounding one more before fleeing, a security source said.

Elsewhere, the military escort for a convoy of petrol tankers driving in the al-Hura region came under fire on Friday evening as they drove along a road to the al-Massila oilfield, another security source told AFP.

Seven soldiers were wounded in the attack, and the gunmen fled without seizing the tankers after military reinforcements arrived.

Yemeni authorities often accuse al-Qaeda of the near-daily deadly attacks on the army and police in the south and east of the country, where the radical Islamist network is active.

Al-Qaeda strengthened its presence in south and eastern Yemen, taking advantage of the weakness of the central authority mainly during the 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.