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Yemen security forces lost 374 men in 6 months

Arab World Materials 2 July 2014 15:14 (UTC +04:00)
Yemeni security forces lost 374 personnel fighting Al-Qaida, northern rebels and southern separatists as well as in targeted assassinations during the first half of 2014
Yemen security forces lost 374 men in 6 months

Yemeni security forces lost 374 personnel fighting Al-Qaida, northern rebels and southern separatists as well as in targeted assassinations during the first half of 2014, according to an AFP toll.

The tally, compiled from official and other sources, shows the army paid the heaviest price for unrest in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation.

It lost 211 troops, among them 12 officers, between January 1 and June 30, with 95 wounded.

Special forces under interior ministry command lost 94 policemen, including seven officers, and 31 wounded.

Thirty-four other policemen, among them 18 officers, were murdered by gunmen on motorcycles. Ten others were wounded in similar attacks, usually blamed by officials on Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

AQAP has never admitted being behind such attacks.

During the same period, 17 intelligence officers were killed and one was wounded in hit-and-run attacks by gunmen on motorbikes, mostly in Sanaa and in restive southern provinces.

In December, Yemen enforced a temporary ban on motorbikes in the capital to try to prevent attacks as politicians engaged in a national dialogue.

Twelve members of the military police have also been killed and 16 wounded over the past six months.

Three Air Force personnel were killed, two of them officers, and the presidential guard lost three men in clashes with Al-Qaida suspects in Sanaa.

Yemeni security forces launched an offensive late April against AQAP in the south and are also engaged in on-off clashes with Shiite Huthi rebels in the north.

They have also come under attack from southern separatists demanding independence for former south Yemen.

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