ADEN, June 26 (AFP): Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed an airport in Yemen's southeastern Hadramawt province on Thursday, triggering an army intervention to evacuate the passengers of a civilian airliner, military and security officials said.
Three soldiers were killed in the attack on Sayun airport, while five more were killed in a suicide bombing that hit a nearby military headquarters, the officials said.
Troops were still in a standoff with the militants, who seized the airport control tower and took hostages before bombing it, a security official said.
Sayun is the main town in the Hadramawt valley, a jihadist stronghold in the province's interior, and was the scene of a spectacular May 24 raid by scores of militants that left 15 soldiers and police dead.
Attackers gunned down three soldiers at the entrance to the Sayun airport, which is also used by the air force, before taking control of parts of the facility, including the control tower, a security official said.
Simultaneously, a suicide bomber targeted a military base close to the airport, killing five soldiers, a military official said.
The attack on the airport took place as a Yemen Airways plane landed, a military official said.
Troops scrambled armoured vehicles to confront the militants and evacuate the passengers of the arriving aircraft in army buses through the northern gate of the airport, the official said.
The rugged terrain of Hadramawt provides hideouts for militants of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington as the jihadist network's most dangerous affiliate.
On May 24, the militants launched a massive pre-dawn assault on Sayun, in which they attacked police and army bases and public buildings with suicide bombers, rocket-launchers and heavy machineguns.
Gunmen storm Yemen airport: 8 troops die
FE Team | Published: June 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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