Two Yemeni troops, 3 militants dead in clashes

ADEN: Two Yemeni soldiers were shot dead on Monday and three suspected Islamist militants were killed the night before in two sets of clashes in the south of the turbulent Arabian Peninsula state, security and tribal sources said.

Monday's incident took place in the commercial port of Aden, which lies east of a strategic shipping strait where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

"Armed groups driving a car opened fire with machine guns on a group of government troops charged with guarding commercial warehouses," a security source told Reuters.
"Security forces exchanged fire for a short period of time with the armed groups leading to the death of two and the injury of two... The armed groups fled to an unknown place," the source added.

Eyewitnesses said the fighting had also involved hand grenades and that a government car had been burnt.