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Twenty Yemeni soldiers have been killed in an attack on a military checkpoint in eastern
Yemen, reports say. Yemen's state-run Saba news agency reports
the attack took place in the province of Hadramawt. Security sources earlier said eight had died
and six were wounded in an attack that one source attributed to al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP). The Yemeni military has been tackling a powerful
al-Qaeda insurgency in the province in recent years.
Hadramawt is a centre of oil production and seen as a stronghold for AQAP, which has been
waging a campaign against the Western-backed government.
"Twenty soldiers were killed in the armed attack on an army checkpoint" near Reida,
about 135km (85 miles) east of the provincial capital Mukalla, Saba reported.
One source told the AFP news agency that the attack was carried out by gunmen in several
vehicles. Last year, the army managed to drive al-Qaeda
out of towns it had taken over in southern Yemen amidst the chaos triggered by a mass
uprising against the veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012.
But this year, its members appear to have regrouped, carrying out a wave of attacks
on security targets, says the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher.
In a gruesome warning, the group recently executed one of its own and displayed his
body, claiming he had been a spy helping US drones to hit al-Qaeda leaders, he adds.