Suspected Al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen seized and executed 17 soldiers loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Saturday, local officials and residents said.
The soldiers were detained while travelling from the southern port of Aden to al-Mahra province in eastern Yemen via Ahwar, a city in Abyan province under Al Qaeda control.
The militants took them to a remote area and killed them by firing squad, the officials and residents said. They said 17 other captive soldiers were wounded in the incident and some managed to escape and get help from local tribal leaders.
Ansar al Sharia, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, later issued a statement denying responsibility for the attack and blamed a local armed fighter named Ali Aqeel.
“We entered Ahwar around two months ago to chase this corrupt individual and his gang,” the statement said.
The soldiers had been visiting family in Aden and were returning to their base in al-Mahra to draw their salaries, security sources said. They were not dressed in military uniform and were not riding in military vehicles.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited the Yemeni war to expand areas under its control, seizing Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout province, last year and recruiting more followers.
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also known as Ansar Al-Sharia, in an online statement denied it was involved in the attack.
“We in Ansar Al-Sharia deny any connection to the murder incident that took place on Saturday morning in the Ahwar area,” it said, blaming a local tribal leader for the killings instead.
Meanwhile, in the region of Nahm, northeast of Sanaa, clashes on Saturday killed three loyalists and four rebel fighters, said another military source 
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