2 killed in Yemen bomb plot, Somali militants caught

Two men were killed in southern Yemen when a bomb they planned to use in an attack on government forces exploded accidentally late on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

"The bodies of the two were ripped apart in the explosion, which happened before they were able to execute their attack," the ministry said in the statement posted on its website.

Yemeni security forces said they had also detained four Somali men suspected of belonging to the Al Shabaab  group near the site of the explosion. There was no indication that they were linked to the bomb plot, the statement said.

The Somali group had sent 300 armed men to fight alongside the Yemen-based wing of the militant network, it said. The four Somalis were captured on the road between the southern provinces of Lahej and Abyan.

The two dead men were identified by the ministry as Yasser and Muneef Al Hawi. The statement said they were killed in Abyan province's Mudiyah district.