Five Yemen policemen wounded in clash with militants
SANAA (Reuters) - About five Yemeni policemen were wounded in a clash with suspected al Qaeda militants on Monday in a southern province where suicide bombers targeted a police complex last month, local officials said.
"The force clashed with the militants when they tried to storm a house they were holed up in. The militants opened fire and used hand grenades," one provincial official told Reuters, describing the clash in Tarim, a town in the Hadramout province.
About five policemen were wounded. It was not immediately clear if any of the militants were killed or wounded, but an official said authorities were combing the area searching for the gunmen.
The Yemen Soldiers Brigades, an al Qaeda-linked group, claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack that killed two people and injured 18 at a police complex in Hadramout province last month.
Late in July, a state-run website said security forces were searching for 12 militants suspected of involvement that attack.
The website of the ruling party said at the time the suspects included a Saudi militant wanted by Saudi authorities.
Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, is grappling with a campaign by al Qaeda militants, who have also claimed responsibility for a shelling near the U.S. embassy and a mortar attack on a refinery in Aden.
(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam, writing by Inal Ersan, editing by Mary Gabriel)
