ADEN (Reuters) - Arab coalition forces killed six al Qaeda militants and arrested four others during a raid in southern Yemen on Tuesday, residents and a security official said.

The raid took place at a village west of the city of Mukalla on the Arabian Sea, the Yemeni security official told Reuters.

The Arab coalition was formed early in 2015 to fight Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi group after it took control of the capital Sanaa and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.

Its mostly Gulf Arab members are also now battling Islamist militants in Yemen, including al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Taking advantage of Yemen’s 20-month-old conflict, several hundred al Qaeda fighters have seized swathes of territory in rural and tribal areas of the impoverished country. </s> The United States military said a raid against an al Qaeda compound in Yemen on Tuesday morning killed seven militants, with two U.S. officials saying the primary objective of the raid was to gather intelligence. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants were killed "through a combination of small arms fire and precision airstrikes" in the Marib governorate with the support of the Yemeni government.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters. </s> The United States military said a raid against an al Qaeda compound in Yemen on Tuesday morning (local time) killed seven militants, with two U.S. officials saying the primary objective of the raid was to gather intelligence.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants were killed "through a combination of small arms fire and precision airstrikes" in the Marib governorate with the support of the Yemeni government.

The two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters separately that there were no known U.S. injuries or casualties and the raid was carried out 40 km (25 miles) to 45 km (28 miles) north of a controversial U.S. raid in late January. </s> Nine women and one child have died after a Saudi-led coalition war plane struck a funeral gathering in Yemen, officials have said.

A strike which hit a house in which mourners were gathered north of the capital on Wednesday also injured dozens more civilians, witnesses said.

The home of a local tribal leader in Ashira, a village north of Sanaa, was destroyed in the strike, a resident told Reuters. Locals had gathered there to offer condolences after a woman in the family died.

“People heard the sound of planes and started running from the house but then the bombs hit the house directly. The roof collapsed. Blood was everywhere,” a second resident, who gave his name as Hamid Ali, said.

Yemeni media published pictures of people searching through the rubble of Mohammed al-Nakaya’s house. Mr Nakyaya is allied to Yemen's Houthi movement, the Shia insurgents currently in control of most of the country.

One picture widely shared online showed a middle-aged man kneeling on the ground, cradling the body of an elderly woman.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition announced Thursday that it will investigate the attack on the funeral and whether civilians were deliberately targeted.

“We are aware of media reports that Houthi rebels are claiming that Yemeni civilians were killed in an air raid overnight near Sanaa,” the coalition said in statement.

“There has been fighting between Yemeni armed forces and rebels in this area in recent days. We are investigating the reports.”

Yemen is currently in the grips of an almost two-year long civil war which has pitted Houthi rebels against the internationally recognised exiled government. More than 10,000 people have died in the conflict, which has also exacerbated disease and hunger.

Extremist groups such as al-Qaeda have also taken advantage of Yemen’s chaos, establishing several strongholds in the country.

Since March 2015 a Saudi-Arabia led coalition of mainly Gulf Arab states has bombed Houthi and al-Qaeda positions at the request of the ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government.

The campaign has drawn international criticism for allegedly targeting civilian infrastructure, causing unnecessary lose of human life that the UN says could amount to war crimes.

In the single worst incident in October 2016, the bombing of a funeral gathering in Sanaa killed around 140 people.

The Gulf alliance maintains that it does not target civilians. An investigation into Wednesday’s funeral bombing is underway, officials said. </s> Yemen officials: Al-Qaida kills at least 20 at military camp

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni officials and tribal leaders say al-Qaida militants targeted a military camp in southern Abyan province, killing at least 20 troops.

The militants attacked the camp with rocket propelled grenades and automatic rifles around midnight, setting off clashes that lasted until early morning on Friday. The troops targeted are members of a force trained by the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels since 2015.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to talk to reporters. The tribal leaders asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

Al-Qaida's Yemen branch has exploited the chaos of Yemen's civil war. The attack came a day after Yemen's southern city of Aden was hit by double attacks that killed 51 people. </s> ADEN (AFP) - At least 28 Huthi insurgents and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed Tuesday in the southern province of Shabwa as government forces pushed to capture a rebel enclave, military officials said.



The fighting flared when forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi attacked rebels in Bayhan district, on the border between Shabwa and Marib provinces.



Bayhan is the only part of Shabwa province still controlled by the Iran-backed rebels after government forces supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition last year expelled them from five southern provinces.



"The death toll of the Huthis has reached 28 while 12 soldiers of the legitimate forces were killed," a military official said.



Military officials said government forces backed by coalition warplanes drove the rebels out of several positions in the area, adding that 14 insurgents were also captured.



The Yemen conflict has killed some 7,000 people since the Saudi-led intervention in March 2015, according to the United Nations.



The coalition began the military campaign against the rebels after they closed in on Hadi in his refuge in the southern city of Aden, forcing him to flee to Riyadh.



The rebels and allied renegade troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh continue to control the capital Sanaa, which they overran in September 2014, along with several mainly northern regions. </s> Yemen officials, tribal leaders say al-Qaida attack on military camp in southern Abyan province kills at least 20 troops

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen officials, tribal leaders say al-Qaida attack on military camp in southern Abyan province kills at least 20 troops. </s> US forces killed seven al-Qaeda militants during raid in Yemen

US forces conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen on Tuesday and killed seven militants of al-Qaeda terrorist group, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, Sputnik reported.

"U.S. forces conducted a counter-terrorism operation against a compound associated with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP], May 23 (Yemen time) in Marib Governorate, Yemen… During this operation, U.S. forces killed seven AQAP militants through a combination of small arms fire and precision airstrikes," the statement said.

According to CENTCOM, the operation was carried out with the support of the Royal Government of Yemen.

"Raids such as this provide insight into AQAP's disposition, capabilities and intentions, which will allow us to continue to pursue, disrupt, and degrade AQAP," the statement said.

Yemen has been engulfed in military conflict between the government troops headed by Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi rebels, the country’s main opposition force, who are backed by army units loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The crisis has had the result of a rise in terror organizations in the country, with al-Qaeda being the most notorious. </s> At least 29 children have been killed and 30 wounded in a Saudi-led coalition air strike in Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

The children were travelling on a bus that was hit at a market in Dahyan, in the northern province of Saada.
Six Al Qaeda insurgents are killed by the Arab coalition in Yemen.