Sanaa, July 4 (IANS): At least two security personnel were killed when suspected Al Qaeda gunmen attacked a military checkpoint near the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen Friday, a government official said.
"The suspected Al Qaeda gunmen carried out an attack with rocket-propelled grenades against a military checkpoint and the Wadia border crossing with Saudi Arabia in southeastern Hadramout province," the government official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
A high-ranking security official working at the Yemeni-Saudi border said that "masked gunmen in a four-wheel drive vehicle opened fire with machine guns at the border guards and stormed the offices there".
A short shootout occurred after the terrorist attack, which resulted in the deaths of two security personnel while three others were injured, according to the source.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Yemeni military officials blamed militants of the Yemen-based Al Qaida offshoot for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern parts.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, which emerged in January 2009, is considered one of the greatest threats to the Yemeni government and neighbouring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.