Yemeni troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition air strike killed six suspected Al-Qaeda fighters outside the southeastern port city of Mukalla yesterday, a security official said, reports AFP.
Mukalla was the most populous Yemeni city under Al-Qaeda control until government troops and coalition special forces recaptured it in April ending a year of jihadist rule.
But the jihadists regrouped in the surrounding mountains from where they have carried out a series of deadly revenge attacks.
“We launched an operation against Al-Qaeda early this morning in the village of Hamra,” west of Mukalla, the security official told AFP.
“It was a preemptive operation carried out with the support of warplanes of the Arab coalition,” he said, adding that four suspected jihadists were also captured.
“(The jihadists) continue to pose a threat to Mukalla and further revenge attacks can’t be excluded.”Suicide bombings claimed by Al-Qaeda killed 11 people at two army checkpoints in the city in July.
In June, Al-Qaeda’s jihadist rival, the Islamic State group, claimed a wave of suicide bombings that killed at least 42 people in Mukalla.