BBC Online :
Twenty Yemeni soldiers have been killed in an attack on a military checkpoint in eastern Yemen, reports say.
Yemen’s state-run Saba news agency says the attack took place in the province of Hadramawt.
Security sources earlier said eight had died and six were wounded in an attack that one source attributed to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Yemeni military has been tackling a powerful al-Qaeda insurgency in the province in recent years.
Hadramawt is a centre of oil production and seen as a stronghold for AQAP, which has been waging a campaign against the Western-backed government.
“Twenty soldiers were killed in the armed attack on an army checkpoint” near Reida, located 135km (85 miles) east of the provincial capital Mukalla, Saba news agency reported.
One source told the AFP news agency that the attack was carried out by gunmen in several vehicles.
Yemen has been struggling to restore state authority after opposition protests drove out veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012.
Al-Qaeda militants have taken advantage of the upheaval and breakdown of central government control to gain ground again in Yemen.
