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Five dead in attack on Yemen payroll convoy

ADEN — Five people, including four soldiers, were killed on Wednesday in an attack on a convoy carrying a government payroll in southeastern Yemen, a police official said.

“Hooded men attacked a vehicle carrying civil servants’ salaries, killing five people including soldiers in the Al-Shihr region,” 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province, security sources told AFP, without providing further details.

Two civil servants and a soldier were also wounded, according to Omar al-Amudi, chief financial officer of the Hadramawt postal service.

It was not immediately known how much money was being transported, or whether the attackers managed to steal it.

In addition, security forces in Ataq, capital of Shabwa province, arrested Nasser Thabet al-Awlaqi and Ali Ahwal al-Khalifa, two leaders of the Southern Movement, a separatist group that wanted to organise an unsanctioned demonstration in the city, said a police source.

Hundreds of armed men from Shabwa and neighbouring Abyan province tried in vain to break the ranks of security forces deployed on approaches to Ataq, witnesses said.

Gunmen, some with machine guns, fought security forces and soldiers, witnesses said. No fatalities were reported.

Southern Yemen and Hadramawt have been shaken by a wave of violence attributed by authorities to the Southern Movement and Al-Qaeda supporters.