Seven People killed in Two Separate Suicide Bomber Attacks in Abayn Province

By Fatik Al-Rodaini

Sana'a, August 21, 2011- At least seven people were killed and several others were wounded in two separate attacks on Saturday night in Yemen's southern province of Abyan.

Local media outlets said according to tribal sources that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, carried out two suicide bomber attacks against tribesmen who fight alongside the Yemen's army in Abyan province.

Sources told the Yemen 24 News that first attack was carried out in Modia district, by a suicide bomber who blew himself up among tribesmen, killing at least two people and injuring another. On the other hand, the other attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber when he below up his car among tribesmen on Saturday night in Al- Urqub district, south of Modia town killing five people and wounding several others. While the other attack

On Friday Yemeni tribesmen killed four Islamist militants in the southern Abyan province, a day after a Yemeni jet bombed another southern location killing at least five militants.

The militants were ambushed and killed in the southern town of al-Urqub.

A day earlier, a Yemeni air strike hit the southern coastal town of Shaqra as well as two sites where militants had gathered in the town of Zinjibar.

Shaqra fell to the militants on Wednesday. It is the third town to be seized by militants following Jaar in Abyan province in March, and Zinjibar, the provincial coastal capital, in May.

Yemen's army in July launched an offensive on militants suspected of having ties to Al-Qaeda. Islamist militants, some possibly linked to al Qaeda, may be exploiting a security vacuum as Saleh and his allies fight to stay in power.

Army units, backed by tribal fighters who have grown frustrated by the state's inability to drive out the militants, have been struggling to retake Zinjibar, which lies east of a major shipping lane where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

Popular protests against Saleh erupted during uprisings that ousted the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt this year, but the Yemeni leader has clung to power, defying international pressure and three times backing out of a Gulf-brokered transition deal.