Five Yemeni soldiers were killed and three others wounded Sunday when gunmen suspected of ties to Al-Qaida opened fire on a military checkpoint, an army source said.

The attack is the latest in a string of suspected AQAP shootings targeting military checkpoints and outposts in Yemen, it said.

AQAP, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in Shabwa.

Yemen's government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.

Statistics showed that more than 8,000 people have been killed in Yemen's conflict, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in 2015.

The country has also been hit by a deadly cholera outbreak and is on the edge of famine.

source: xinhua