30 dead as Yemen army launches new assault on Qaeda
Suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed 18 Yemeni soldiers in
separate ambushes Tuesday as the army launched a ground offensive against their
remaining strongholds in the south, medical and security sources said.
Twelve militants were also killed when the ambush in Shabwa
province sparked a firefight, tribal sources said.
Ten soldiers were also wounded and 15 captured, medics and
an officer said.
The ground offensive, which was launched just hours before
the opening of a donors' conference in London, seeks to capitalise on Al-Qaeda
losses in a blistering US-backed air offensive last week in which nearly 60
suspected militants were killed.
Commanders are seeking to expel the jihadists from a series
of smaller towns and hill districts in Abyan and Shabwa provinces where they
retained a presence after a 2012 offensive in which the army recaptured the
major towns.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- a merger of the
network's Yemeni and Saudi branches -- is regarded by Washington as its most
dangerous franchise and has been subjected to an intensifying drone war this
year.
The jihadists took advantage of a 2011 uprising that forced
veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of the
south and east, from which the army has struggled to evict them, despite
backing from militia recruited among the local tribes.
Militants ambushed the army convoy near Al-Saeed, one of
several towns in Shabwa province where troops backed by militiamen advanced
overnight, an officer said.
Armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades, they
seized a troop carrier and captured 15 soldiers inside, and also destroyed
three other vehicles, he added.
The army sent "massive" reinforcements to the
area, another officer said.
Hours later, militants in Abyan province ambushed a
seven-vehicle convoy advancing towards Wadi Daiqa, where Al-Qaeda suspects were
positioned, an officer there said.
They killed three soldiers and wounded seven, the source
said.
Tuesday's incidents were a major setback to an operation
launched amid great fanfare ahead of the Friends of Yemen meeting of donor
governments keen to bolster security in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula
country where Al-Qaeda attacks have spread even to the capital.
Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed has travelled to the
south to oversee the offensive, which "will not stop until these areas are
purged of Al-Qaeda militants," an official said.
In the capital, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi said extra "security
measures" had been taken over fears of Al-Qaeda reprisals.
Just Monday, a German diplomat was wounded in an abortive
kidnap attempt in the embassy district of Sanaa.
National Security chief Ali al-Ahmadi said the Supreme
Security Committee had decided to "eradicate all forms of security
problems" that had emerged during the 11-month uprising that forced Saleh
to quit in February 2012.
"This strategic aim shall not be abandoned until
security and stability are restored," state media quoted him as telling a
security meeting in Ataq.
Militia commander Hussein al-Wuhayshi said there was an
"official decision to uproot Al-Qaeda from Abyan and Shabwa."
The ground offensive in the two provinces came after intense
US and Yemeni air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda targets on April 20 and 21
which officials described as "unprecedented".
Air strikes on Abyan province killed 55 suspected militants,
while three more were killed in Shabwa.
A drone strike in Baida province further north killed 10
suspected militants and three civilians.
But DNA analysis of bodies recovered after the strikes
showed that no leading members of Al-Qaeda were among the dead, a security
official told AFP.
AQAP leader Nassir al-Wuhayshi pledged in a rare video last
month to attack Western "crusaders... everywhere in the world".
The video, which showed Wuhayshi addressing militants, could
have been shot in the Al-Kur mountain range, which stretches between Abyan,
Shabwa and Baida provinces, and is an AQAP stronghold, according to tribal
sources.
Washington has kept up its drone war in Yemen despite
mounting criticism of the civilian toll.
It says its use of the unmanned aircraft allows it to target
jihadists without sending soldiers into lawless areas where local authorities
have little or no control.
Comments
Post a Comment