Yemeni government forces. – File Photo

SANAA: Eight people were killed in clashes between Yemeni government forces and armed tribesmen loyal to former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who were trying to storm the Interior Ministry in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday, a medical source said.

The source said a “large number” of people were also wounded in the fighting. It was not clear whether those killed were soldiers or tribesmen.

An explosives expert jumps from a military truck as he arrives at the site of a suicide bomb attack at a parade square in Sanaa. — File Photo by Reuters

SANAA: A suicide bomber killed on Monday Yemen’s southern army commander, General Salem Ali Qoton, in an attack in the port city of Aden, a medical official told AFP.

“General Qoton was killed and four others were wounded in a suicide attack,” near his home in the Mansoura neighbourhood of Aden, the medic said on condition of anonymity.

The medic, who is also a relative of Qoton, said the attacker “handed Qoton a paper, shook his hand and then detonated himself,” when the general was walking to his office.

As the chief military commander in south Yemen, Qoton had led a month-long offensive against al Qaeda, forcing the militant group to withdraw from several towns and villages in the restive Abyan and Shabwa provinces which they had controlled since last year.

The Monday morning attack came as al Qaeda fled from their last bastion in the town of Azzan in Shabwa.

Since last week, al Qaeda has withdrawn from three other strongholds in Abyan, including the capital Zinjibar, and the towns of Jaar and Shuqra.

On May 12, the Yemeni army began its offensive to recapture territory lost to the militants.

A total of 567 people have died in the campaign – 429 al Qaeda militants, 78 soldiers, 26 militiamen and 34 civilians – according to an AFP tally compiled from various sources.

Yemeni residents stand next to the houses destroyed during recent fighting between the army and al Qaeda-linked militants on a road leading to the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar on June 14, 2012. – Photo by AFP.

ADEN: At least 48 people, including 40 militants, were killed on Thursday in clashes in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan where al Qaeda and the army are battling for control, state media said.

The country’s armed forces “chased down terrorist elements being routed in the direction of the town of Shuqra,” the SABA official news agency said, noting that “300 terrorists are surrounded in their last strongholds.”

Forty terrorists were killed in the offensive and dozens have been wounded,” it added, citing a military source.

SABA said the air force had launched around 100 raids against militants holed up in Shuqra.

On Tuesday, the military drove the jihadists out of the provincial capital of Zinjibar and Jaar, with l Qaeda gunmen believed to have fled east to Shuqra, the only town in Abyan besides Mahfad which the extremists still hold.

A military official speaking on condition of anonymity said earlier that six civilians, “three women, two children and one man, were killed in a Yemeni air raid” on Shuqra.

The official said the intended target had been militant fighters.

A local official said two soldiers were also killed on Thursday.

“Clashes using machine guns between al Qaeda militants and the army, backed by local militiamen, left two soldiers dead and 11 wounded,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, nine civilians were killed by landmines planted by militants in Zinjibar, according to local official Mohsen Saleh.

He said the civilians, who had fled the city last May after al Qaeda took control, died in two separate landmine explosions.

According to Zinjibar’s deputy mayor, hundreds of displaced residents have returned since Tuesday to find their “homes flattened and the city destroyed.”

Today I arrived here with my family and was shocked by the total destruction of the city,” Ghassan Sheikh said.

He said the army has so far been unable to clear all the landmines planted by al Qaeda, adding they have been sown in most of the city’s streets.

In Jaar, meanwhile, residents said they were able to free some 20 prisoners from an al Qaeda detention centre, among them local clerics imprisoned by the jihadists for opposing their presence and speaking openly against terrorism.

Taking advantage of the weakening of central government control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the militants had overrun most of Abyan, taking full control of Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several villages.

On May 12, Yemen’s military launched an all-out offensive to recapture territory lost to the jihadists.

A total of 540 people have died in the campaign – 402 al Qaeda militants, 78 soldiers, 26 militiamen and 34 civilians – according to an AFP tally compiled from various sources.

Tuesday’s military victories came just hours before the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution threatening sanctions against groups seen as undermining Yemen’s political transition.

The main targets of Resolution 2051 are the family and supporters of Yemen’s ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, although they were not named in the text, diplomats in New York said.

Saleh has been accused by his opponents of allowing al Qaeda to take hold of large swathes of the country’s south and east, and of meddling in the new government’s affairs.

The resolution also backed President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who pledged to destroy al Qaeda when he was sworn in as Saleh’s successor in February.

“Fifteen al Qaeda gunmen were killed in clashes with members of the 111th Brigade in Loder in Abyan province,” a stronghold of the terror network, the defence ministry 26sep.net reported. -File Photo

ADEN: At least 24 people were killed Monday as al Qaeda militants raided an army barracks, the latest in a spate of attacks by the terror network which has boosted its presence across Yemen’s lawless south and east.

“Fifteen al Qaeda gunmen were killed in clashes with members of the 111th Brigade in Loder in Abyan province,” a stronghold of the terror network, the defence ministry 26sep.net reported.

A local source in the town of Jaar, where dead and wounded extremists are taken, said 10 militants were killed in the battle.

Five soldiers and four tribesmen fighting alongside the army also died, military and tribal sources said.

“The army is backing us with weapons,” a tribal chief said. “We will fight al Qaeda and will not let them into our city.”

The barracks came under fire from the insurgents before daylight and soldiers retaliated, military sources said.

Heavy fighting ensued as the soldiers were backed by tribesmen.

The attack came after air strikes killed 24 suspected al Qaeda militants in their strongholds of southern and eastern Yemen at the weekend, according to the defence ministry and a tribal chief.

The city of Loder is located about 150 kilometres (95 miles) northeast of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province which the Partisans of Sharia overran in May 2011.

A tribal source said the militants have been hiding in rugged mountainous regions east and north of Loder.

The Partisans of Sharia is linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which the United States considers the most active branch of the global terror network.

It has exploited a decline in central government control that accompanied Arab Spring-inspired protests that eventually forced Yemen’s veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh to cede power in the face of a popular uprising.

Al Qaeda briefly overran Loder in August 2010 before being driven out by the army, according to a military source.

He said the militants were deployed in numbers around the city and wanted to retake it for its strategic location between Shabwa, Bayda and Lahij provinces where AQAP is active.

“The tribes are fighting alongside the army and we will repel al Qaeda.

Their plans will fail so long as the local population stands by our side,” he said.

The source in Jaar said that 12 militants were also killed late on Sunday in artillery shelling by the army on the outskirts of Zinjibar.

Dozens of fighters have poured in from the town of Azzan in Shabwa to back fighters in Zinjibar, he said. Among them were nationals from neighbouring Gulf states, mainly Saudi Arabia.

In the main southern city of Aden of Monday, a policeman was killed and another was wounded in an attack on their patrol, a police official told AFP.

A witness said the attack took place in Mansura, a residential district of Aden, where two suspected al Qaeda bombers died on Friday as their payload exploded short of their intended target, intelligence offices.

Three were killed and six wounded in the coastal town of Shaqra, seized by Islamists in August, during an air strike, the official said. - File Photo

ADEN: Yemeni government forces killed six militant fighters on Wednesday night in two towns, a local official said on Thursday, and part of efforts to drive the fighters out of three cities in the country’s south.

Three were killed and six wounded in the coastal town of Shaqra, seized by Islamists in August, during an air strike, the official said.

Another three were killed and dozens wounded in Zinjibar, which was captured in May, when Yemen army forces shelled one of their bases in the northern part of the city.

Two soldiers were wounded during clashes with the militants, the official said.

Islamist militants have also been in control of Jaar since March, apparently exploiting a security vacuum while President Ali Abdullah Saleh fights to keep his grip on power after nine-months of protests against his rule.

Saleh has refused a Gulf-brokered power transfer plan three times, aggravating protests and bringing the impoverished country to the brink of civil war.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. — Photo by AP

SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is back in Sanaa after more than three months in Saudi Arabia where he was treated for wounds received in a bomb attack on his compound, state television said Friday.

Saleh, who has since January faced massive street protests demanding he step down, was hospitalised in Riyadh on June 4, a day after the attack.

The president’s return comes as Sanaa is wracked by violence, with almost 100 people killed in clashes since Sunday between rival military units backed by tribesmen, and in attacks on anti-regime protesters by Saleh’s forces.

The bloodletting in the Yemeni capital has stalled a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative that would see Saleh stepping down and handing over all constitutional authorities to his deputy.

In return, he and his family would be granted immunity from prosecution.

The casualties were taken during “several hours of fighting that ensued,” the officer added. - File Photo

Seven Yemeni soldiers were killed and six others wounded on Saturday in clashes with suspected al Qaeda forces in the southern province of Abyan, a military officer said.

The fighting took place near Dofes, a village south of the provincial capital of Zinjibar that has been occupied by extremist elements since the end of May, the source said.

“al Qaeda fighters hidden in a wooded mountainous area opened fire on army units heading from Dofes to Zinjibar to try to rejoin the 25th Mechanised Brigade,” which is encircled by the Islamists, the source said.

“Seven of our soldiers were killed and six others wounded in clashes which continued for several hours,” he added.

At least one attacker was killed, according to a source at the Al-Razi hospital in Jaar, another Abyan village controlled by al Qaeda.

“We received the body of an al Qaeda fighter killed in the fighting near Dofes,” the hospital source told AFP, identifying the victim as Omar al-Marqab from the northern al Jawf province.

On Tuesday, seven soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 30 others wounded in a suspected al Qaeda attack on the Dofes-based Brigade 201 camp, according to a report obtained by AFP from an army officer.

Reprisal raids that followed killed dozens of suspected militants from the Islamist network, according to local and medical sources. An official in the region reported 35 al Qaeda loyalists killed.

Air strikes on Wednesday and Thursday targeted two al Qaeda positions south of Zinjibar, held by militants linked to al Qaeda, killing 14 suspected members of the network, according to tribal and local sources.

Earlier, they had said the strikes could have been carried out by US drones. Local resident’s claim US drones regularly fly over the region.

Yemeni authorities deny any direct US participation in their fight against al Qaeda, but on June 14, Leon Panetta, the CIA director, said his country was carrying out anti-terrorism operations in Yemen.

Since late May, fighters linked to al Qaeda took control of several Abyan towns, taking advantage of the weakening of central authority that followed a wave of popular protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He has been recovering in Saudi Arabia for more than two months from bomb blast wounds.

“al Qaeda fighters have attacked positions of armed tribesmen” tasked with defending the town on Wednesday. - AFP (File Photo)

ADEN: Suspected al Qaeda gunmen have seized control of the town of Shaqra in lawless Abyan province, a stronghold of the jihadist network in southern Yemen, a local official said on Thursday.

“al Qaeda fighters have attacked positions of armed tribesmen” tasked with defending the town on Wednesday, and have “managed to drive them away without any resistance,” the official told AFP.

Tribesmen backing government forces in the restive region had in mid-July chased the suspected al Qaeda militants from Shaqra.

The town lies 35 kilometres (20 miles) east of Zinjibar – the provincial capital that has been mostly under the control of suspected al Qaeda gunmen since late May.

The militants tried to advance to nearby villages after taking control of Shaqra but “their advance was halted by tribesmen, and clashes broke out,” a tribal source told AFP.

Yemeni tribesmen have in past weeks been locked in battle with suspected al Qaeda militants in Abyan, especially in Zinjibar.

The army has been battling the militants calling themselves Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), who have besieged its 25th Mechanised Brigade base in Zinjibar.

Apart from Shaqra and Zinjibar, Islamist gunmen control the village of Jaar.

The official Saba news agency had said earlier that “two prominent members of the al Qaeda leadership were killed ... in Abyan province,” naming them as Ayad al-Shabwani and Awad Mohammed Saleh al-Shabwani. - AFP (File Photo)

ADEN: Ayad al-Shabwani, a leader of Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has been killed in fighting with the army, a military source said on Thursday.

Shabwani was killed on Tuesday in heavy fighting that continued into Wednesday between the army and suspected al Qaeda militants near Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, east of the main southern city Aden, the source said.

The official Saba news agency had said earlier that “two prominent members of the al Qaeda leadership were killed … in Abyan province,” naming them as Ayad al-Shabwani and Awad Mohammed Saleh al-Shabwani.

Yemen had said before that Ayad al-Shabwani was killed, along with five other leaders, in a January 15 air strike on a convoy of vehicles. Three days later, AQAP denied that either Shabwani or the five others had been killed.

Militants believed to be linked to al Qaeda took over much of Zinjibar in late May, and have been battling security forces ever since, displacing thousands of residents.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of veteran al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan on May 2.

John Brennan, US President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, last week went to Saudi Arabia to visit Saleh whose face still showed burns. A Yemeni official later said that Saleh would return home “soon.” - AFP (File Photo)

WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday that dialogue was essential to resolve Yemen’s political crisis and played down the opposition’s announcement of a “presidential council” to run the country.

Testifying before the Senate, US officials acknowledged question marks over the political transition in Yemen. Veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in a bomb attack on June 3 and hospitalized in Saudi Arabia.

“We believe that political dialogue is essential to unravel this set of knots that the Yemeni political process finds itself in,” said Janet Sanderson, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

“And we believe that Saleh’s role in that is going to be critical,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

John Brennan, US President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser, last week went to Saudi Arabia to visit Saleh whose face still showed burns. A Yemeni official later said that Saleh would return home “soon.”

Yemen’s opposition at the same time announced a 17-member “presidential council” including a former premier to steer the country.

Sanderson said she understood that some nominees were “caught unawares” that they would serve on the council.

“It seems to us that at this point this council does not have a lot of traction, but the political environment in Sanaa remains quite fluid,” she said.

Saleh has ruled Yemen since 1978 and worked closely with the United States on fighting al Qaeda, but cooperation has been sharply curtailed this year due to the turmoil. al Qaeda militants seized the southern city of Zinjibar in late May.

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s counter-terrorism coordinator, voiced confidence that cooperation would resume once the political chaos is resolved.

“It is important to underscore that our counter-terrorism partnership goes beyond one individual, and based on our conversations with a broad cross-section of Yemenis we are confident that it will continue once a political resolution is achieved,” Benjamin told the Senate committee.