6 Yemen Soldiers Killed in Suicide Attack

Six soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in a suicide car bombing Friday of a military command center in southern Yemen, the defense ministry said, lowering an earlier death toll.

Military and security sources had originally given a toll of 12 dead and six wounded for the attack in Abyan province.

The blast in the Ahwar district targeted the 111th Brigade's command center, the ministry said, adding that its chief, General Mohammed Hussein al-Bakhiti, was seriously wounded.

A military source said the bomber had used an armored vehicle to carry out the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

On Thursday, gunmen suspected of membership in al-Qaida carried out two attacks targeting a police post and a security checkpoint near Abyan, military sources said.

A soldier was killed and two others wounded in the attack on the security checkpoint, they added.

Suspected al-Qaida fighters carry out frequent attacks in southern Yemen, a lawless region where jihadist groups are active.

On Tuesday, a police officer was gunned in a motorcycle drive-by shooting in Hadramawt province.

A gun battle last month in Abyan province left two suspected al-Qaida militants and a pro-government militiaman dead, after a failed attack on the head of a militia that backs the government.

The militias, who recruit from the area's heavily armed tribes, fought a fierce war alongside the army in mid-2012. They helped to drive al-Qaida militants out of the main cities of Abyan, after the extremist network had held them for a year.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has intensified its attacks on security forces in Yemen, taking advantage of the weakening of the Sanaa central government since a popular uprising that toppled president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.