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SANAA, Yemen (AP) \u2014 An explosive device detonated and killed six troops loyal to a United Arab Emirates-backed secessionist group Monday in southern Yemen, a military spokesman said, the latest attack blamed on al-Qaida militants<\/a> in the impoverished Arab country.<\/p>\n The explosion hit a military vehicle as it passed in a mountainous area in the Modiyah district of southern Abyan province, said Mohamed al-Naqib, a spokesman for the Southern Armed Forces, the military arm of the secessionist Southern Transitional Council.<\/p>\n Eleven other troops were wounded, he added.<\/p>\n The UAE-backed council controls much of Yemen\u2019s south. It is at odds with the internationally recognized government, although they are allies in Yemen\u2019s yearslong war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels<\/a> who control the north and the capital Sanaa.<\/p>\n Al-Naqib blamed al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, for the attack.<\/p>\n AQAP is seen as one of the more dangerous branches of the terror group still operating more than a decade after the killing of founder Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n It is active in several regions in Yemen, exploiting the country\u2019s civil war to cement its presence in the nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.<\/p>\n Yemen\u2019s ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government into exile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n