At Least 10 Killed In Attacks Led By Yemen's Ansar Al-Sharia

SANAA (Reuters) - At least 10 people have been killed in Yemen over the past four days in attacks led by an al Qaeda's affiliate against Shiite Houthi fighters and the Yemeni army, local officials and the group said.

Yemen has been in limbo since its president and prime minister resigned less than two weeks ago after the Houthis seized the presidential palace and confined the head of state to his residence in a struggle to tighten control over Yemen.

The rise of the Houthis has antagonized Sunni tribesmen and Sunni al Qaeda militants, who regard them as heretics.

On Sunday, Ansar al-Sharia said its members targeted and killed Abu Abdullah al-Ayadi, a Houthi commander in Yemen's central city of Ibb, according the group's Twitter account.

Local officials in the city confirmed the death of the commander without giving further details.

The militants targeted Yemeni soldiers on Saturday and said it had killed two at a checkpoint in the southern city of Abyan and wounded two others, according to a post on its Twitter account.

Local officials in the region said that clashes between the army and the militants had also led to the death of at least three Ansar al-Sharia members.

The group also said on Twitter it shot an army officer in the southern province of Lahj on Friday and killed three other Houthi fighters in the central province of al-Bayda on Thursday.

Yemen has been in turmoil since 2011, to the dismay of neighboring Saudi Arabia and Western powers, who want to prevent instability in the Arabian peninsula threatening their oil supplies or giving al Qaeda a base for overseas attacks.