DHAKA: Seven people were killed in clashes between Yemeni tribal gunmen and suspected al-Qaida fighters on Sunday in Marib province, east of the capital Sanaa.

Yemen’s tribal sources said, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Al-Qaida guerrillas killed one tribesman, the sources in the province said, and a later clash between the two sides killed another two tribesmen and four militants.

‘The al-Qaida members are the ones who started the attack,’ a tribesman told media.

There was no immediate word on what lay behind the flare-up.

The Yemeni-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) emerged as one of the network’s most aggressive branches, and a direct threat to the United States, when it claimed responsibility for an attempt by a Nigerian man to down a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25, 2009, with a bomb concealed in his underwear.

Maintaining stability in impoverished Yemen is a priority for Washington and Gulf states because of its location next to major oil shipping routes and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world`s top oil exporter.

A Yemeni official said the government had boosted security in the southern provinces where many of Yemen’s oil and gas facilities are located after at least 31 soldiers and police were killed by suspected al Qaeda militants on Friday.

BDST: 2046 HRS, SEPT 22, 2013
RoR/Jck