A day after President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi announced a change in ministerial position, in a bid to address Yemen’s deteriorating security crisis and instigate a change in policy at the oil ministry, the country’s founding economic block; military officials confirmed that al-Qaeda had yet again targeted a military base in the southern province of Abyan, in Lawder.
It is important to note that Abyan was turned in 2012 into an al-Qaeda hub after the terror group managed to exploit Yemen’s power vacuum by establishing several strongholds at the heart of the region. Strong in its positions al-Qaeda proclaimed the cities of Zinjibar and Jaar, Islamic Caliphates. While of course President Hadi successfully drove out all militants from the region through an intense and well-coordinated military operation, security experts were shaken by the sheer magnitude of al-Qaeda’s military abilities and the boldness of its true intention: creating an Islamic terror state at the heart of the Arabian Peninsula.
Ever since al-Qaeda was forced out of Abyan, the group has been attempting to breach other neighbouring provinces, always inching closer to Aden and its geo-strategic seaport.
A senior military official told reporters on Saturday that fighters allegedly associated to al-Qaeda fired “rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machineguns” at a military base in province of Abyan. Two soldiers have been confirmed dead.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Abdullah, commander of the army's 115th Brigade confirmed that one of the terror militant, a Saudi national had been killed in the attack. Two Yemeni nationals were also arrested.