ADEN: A suicide bomber killed 12 Yemeni soldiers at a military post in the southern province of Abyan on Friday morning, officials said.
The attacker “drove a car bomb against a security forces position” in the Mudiyah district, said Mohamed al-Naqib, spokesman for the Southern Transitional Council.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but individuals linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have stepped up attacks on military installations in Yemen.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has used a nine-year conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthi group and a Saudi-backed coalition to bolster its influence in a country that shares a border with Saudi Arabia and lies near important shipping routes.
The Southern Transitional Council, an ally of the Saudi-led coalition that controls large parts of the south it wants to secede, has stepped up its offensives against al-Qaeda elements in Abyan over the past year.
AQAP has survived years of attempted crackdowns by the US military, coalition and Houthis, taking advantage of Yemen's chaos, tribal sympathies and vast tracts of empty territory.
