Al-Qaeda gunmen seize Yemeni town of Udain

Yemeni security officials said on October 16 that gunmen believed to have ties to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network seized the town of Udain in the southwest of the country.

Five policemen were killed in an overnight attack by gunmen on the town of Udain, 20km west of the provincial capital Ibb, according to a Yemeni security official. The gunmen attacked and set fire to police headquarters, local government offices and the post office.

Houthi rebels on a street in Sanaa. (Source: THX/TTXVN)

Local officials said the gunmen attacked Udain in retaliation for the Shi'ite Houthi rebels seizing the town of Ibb hours earlier.

Al-Qaeda is active in several provinces, mainly in southern and southeastern Yemen. Meanwhile, Houthi rebels are active in the north, currently controlling Sanaa and the strategic port city of Hudeida and Dhamar province.

The force encountered almost no resistance when it took Hudeidah - Yemen's second largest port city - and Sanaa. For many years, taking advantage of the power vacuum in Yemen, the Houthi rebel group has attacked and occupied important areas of the country. However, many people are concerned that the Houthi rebels' expansion of control could cause a confrontation between this force and Al-Qaeda militants.

Since the uprising that toppled President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2002, Yemen - an important ally of the US in the fight against Al-Qaeda - has been caught in a difficult political transition that has led to frequent violence in the country./.

According to VNA