Gunmen attack commander’s house in Abyan

ABYAN, Feb. 20 (YPA) – Unidentified gunmen targeted on Monday the house of a former official in Mudiyah district of Abyan province, southern Yemen.

Local sources stated that the gunmen, believed to be members of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) militias, targeted on Sunday, the house of the former director of the district, Samir al-Hayed, with a hand grenade in al-Maqbaba area, which left a state of panic among the people.

The sources indicated that al-Hayed’s house was empty of his family members during the attack, indicating that the gunmen fled to an unknown destination.

Last Saturday, the STC militia kidnapped a member of the local council in Mudiyah, Ali Ahmed Mashdaq, with his four children, and looted many of his household items without any reason, amid local demands for his unconditional release.

This comes within the framework of the current tensions between the STC militia and the Mudiyah tribes’ militants since the militia announced the “Operation Arrows of the East” at the end of last August, to fight terrorist elements, during which it managed to control the Islah Party’s camps in Abyan, amid accusations of Mudiyah tribesmen of harboring al-Qaeda elements, according to what the STC militias claimed.

AA