Gunmen kill 5 in Yemen robbery, al Qaeda blamed

Observed by: Mr. Alaa Isam

Gunmen killed four Yemeni soldiers and a postal official and stole some $50,000 (£31,489) in an attack in the south of the impoverished Arab state on Wednesday, a local official said.

The gunmen, suspected of being from a local al Qaeda unit, ambushed an army-escorted postal truck carrying cash in a town in the southern province of Hadramout, said the official.

Militant attacks have been frequent in the south, where Yemen is trying to quell a resurgent wing of al Qaeda and growing separatist militancy.

Al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing has stepped up attacks on Western and regional targets in the poor Arabian peninsula state, a neighbour of oil giant Saudi Arabia.

Yemen is also trying to maintain a truce with Shi'ite rebels in the north of the country, which is a focus of Western security concerns after two U.S.-bound parcel bombs were intercepted in Britain and Dubai in October, a plot claimed by al Qaeda's local wing.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mokhashaf; Writing by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://yhoo.it/dHHUk4