Al-Qaeda attack kills 5 UAE-trained soldiers in Yemen: Officials

Yemeni tribal and security officials say a suspected al-Qaeda attack on a checkpoint in a southern province has killed five soldiers and wounded four others.

They say the attack took place late Tuesday in Ahwar district in Abyan province and targeted Security Belt forces – fighters trained and financed by the UAE, which is part the Arab coalition battling the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The officials spoke on Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media and the tribal leaders for fear of reprisals.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, has long been considered the global network's most dangerous branch and has attempted to carry out attacks on the US mainland.

Yemen was plunged into a civil war in March 2015.

The devastating conflict in Yemen has left more than 10,000 people dead since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intervened to fight Houthi rebels closing in on the last bastion of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government.

The conflict in what was already one of the world's poorest countries has caused what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.