Militants kill 24 soldiers in Yemen: govt MILITANTS have killed 24 soldiers in attacks in southern Yemen, the country's Defence Ministry says, lowering earlier toll figures. Militants detonated a car bomb at Ba Fakhsous near the Belhaf natural gas terminal in the province of Shabwa, the ministry said on one of its websites. Radical insurgents launched another deadly attack on government troops in Maifaa, about 30 kilometres away from Ba Fakhsous, according to the report. Media reports had put the death toll at 27. There was no official word on who might be behind the attacks. The Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) militia established an effective mini-state in parts of Shabwa and neighbouring Abyan province in 2011, before being driven out in mid-2012 by security forces and allied tribal militias.