AL-MUKALLA: At least nine people were killed on Monday in clashes between Yemeni security forces and local tribesmen suspected of sheltering Al-Qaeda members in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, residents and local officials said.

Clashes erupted in Abyan’s Moudea as Security Belt soldiers encircled a village and demanded that local tribesmen give up at least 15 suspected Al-Qaeda militants who had prepared a fatal ambush on pro-independence forces on a nearby road.