2 Yemeni soldiers escorting UN convoy killed in ambush

SMA NEWS – SEIYUN
Two troops from Yemen’s pro-government forces were killed in an armed ambush on a United Nations convoy in eastern Yemen, the U.N. said Saturday.
According to a statement from the U.N.’s International Office of Migration spokeswoman, the two soldiers were killed while escorting a convoy traveling west from Seiyun to Marib. No IOM staff, who were on an unspecified humanitarian mission, were injured in the attack, it said. No further details about the Friday incident were given.
A tribal leader from the area and a U.N. official told The Associated Press that the ambush took place near the town of Al-Abr, in Yemen’s eastern Hadramout province. Both spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
In a separate statement issued on Friday by Lt. Gen. Saleh Mohammed Timis of Yemen’s Special Tasks Battalion — an official branch of the Saudi-backed army — the two men were identified as Salem Saeed Qarwan and Salem Mubarak Al-Bahri.
The attackers have not been identified.