Suicide bomb kills 2 soldiers in Yemen

A suicide bombing killed two soldiers and wounded six others in eastern Yemen on Friday, a military official said, blaming Al-Qaeda militants for the attack. An explosives-laden car "driven by a suicide attacker from Al-Qaeda" exploded at a checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Shibam, in Hadramawt province, the official told AFP. Militants from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) remain active in the south and east of Yemen despite relentless campaigns by government forces, backed by US drone strikes. Meanwhile, security forces arrested two members of Al-Qaeda in the central province of Taiz, Saba state news agency reported citing a security official. The pair, who were nabbed in the area of Ossayfira, were plotting "terror acts" in the province, the official said. Yemen's president Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi said on Thursday that he asked Washington to provide Sanaa with drones, adding that strikes conducted by unmaned US planes are part of the cooperation between the two countries in the fight against Al-Qaeda. "I have talked with the US administration about helping us with this technology... Yemenis are clever and can understand it very quickly," Hadi said in a speech. Drones have killed dozens of AQAP militants, and only the United States possesses such aircraft in the region.