Aden—A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a large group of army reinforcements in south Yemen on Sunday, killing five soldiers, military officials said.
Another seven soldiers were wounded in the attack targeting troops who had been sent from the main southern city of Aden to Lahj province to fight jihadists, the sources said.
A military official said it was unclear whether the attack had been carried out by Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, both of which have gained ground in the south and claimed deadly anti-government assaults in the past.
The bombing came hours after clashes between troops and jihadists in Lahj, the military officials told Agence France Presse, adding that Saudi-led coalition jets also took part in the fighting.
Also on Sunday, suspected members of Al-Qaeda shot dead an army colonel in nearby Abyan province, a military source said.
The gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at Colonel Abdullah Shamba, killing him immediately before driving off, the official said.
Shamba headed a local anti-Al-Qaeda militia in Abyan.
Late on Saturday, coalition jets attacked Al-Qaeda positions in Abyan’s provincial capital of Zinjibar and in the nearby town of Jaar, military sources said.
Government forces backed by the Arab coalition began an all-out offensive in March against jihadists in south Yemen, recapturing main cities they had held.
But they later retreated from Zinjibar after Al-Qaeda militants struck back.
Jihadists have exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Huthi rebels and their allies to expand their presence in south and southeast Yemen.
The Arab coalition which backs the Yemeni government against pro-Iran rebels has also turned its sights on the jihadists, and the United States has pressed its drone war against them.
Washington considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, to be the extremist network’s deadliest franchise.