Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) attacked and briefly occupied a strategically important south Yemen military base, near the Aden airport, today, launching suicide attacks and engaging in a multi-hour gunbattle over the facility.
In the end, at least 14 Yemeni troops were reported slain, and 10 wounded. Six AQAP attackers were also said to have died in the fighting. Though Aden also houses a significant number of foreign troops from the Saudi coalition, there was no word of any foreign casualties.
Only 10 of the Yemeni troops were actually killed at the site of the base itself, and while that major battle was ongoing, AQAP forces also hit another security facility inside the city itself, killing the other four.
Aden is the “interim” capital of the pro-Saudi Yemeni forces, though their control over the city has often been tenuous. Since expelling the Shi’ite Houthis from the area, much of Aden has had significant Islamist presences, and there have been several fights and a growing number of attacks on troops in the area, as both AQAP and ISIS try to assert themselves.