Aden (south24)

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At least 31 of soldiers and civilians were killed an wounded on Friday afternoon, due to a “terrorist” attack that targeted a military truck belonging to the “Security Belt Forces” in Abyan governorate, South Yemen, a security source and eyewitnesses said.

A security source told “South24” that a motorcycle bomb bumped into the military truck carrying soldiers nearby a popular market in Zinjibar killing soldiers and civilians.

The authorities have not yet announced the official death toll, but South24 got a names list of six "dead" soldiers and 13 other wounded, all of whom are soldiers of the Third Brigade of Support (Security Belt Forces).

A picture of the truck that was bombed in Zinjibar, Abyan, on Friday afternoon (Activists / Twitter)

"The outcome of the terrorist Zinjibar attack, six soldiers were killed and at least 25 wounded, including civilians" the official spokesman for the Southern Forces, Mohammad al-Naqib, told "South24" late Friday.

Security sources and officials in the Southern Transitional Council (STC) have not ruled out that the incident may be a “terrorist attack” especially as it comes in the wake of a series of attacks for which al Qaeda (AQAP) admitted responsibility.

Dead and wounded from the southern forces in a terrorist attack, on Friday (Twitter: activists)

The STC accuses the Yemeni Presidential Forces, based in Abyan, of recruiting members affiliated to “terrorist” groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS and using them to launch combat operations against the Southern Forces.

The Yemeni Islah party controls the forces based in east of Abyan and Shabwah governorate.

Yesterday evening, unidentified gunmen, according to a security source who spoke to South24, killed a security official in Aden.

The AQAP leader, Khaled Batarfi, appeared in mid-May in a film broadcast by al-Qaeda, in which he called on what he described as the "sons of South" to fight and revolt against the security forces in South Yemen.

The security forces of the STC have been engaged in fierce fighting against "terrorist" organizations for years.

These forces achieved tangible successes over the past years, before they suffered a setback in Shabwa, after government forces controlled by the Islamists Islah party, in August 2019, seized the governorate.

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-Pictures: The truck that was attacked in Abyan governorate, South Yemen, Friday, May 11, 2021 (Activists / Twitter)