Yemeni troops, tanks advance on al Qaeda-held town
Mon Jun 4, 2012 4:29pm GMT
* Troops and tanks advance on town of Shaqra in south
* Suicide bombers in Lawdar kill four
* Fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ite in the north kills 34 (Adds details of
offensive, third bomber)
ADEN/SANAA, June 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Yemeni troops backed by tanks
advanced in a bid to retake a coastal town from al Qaeda-linked fighters on
Monday, residents said, part of a U.S.-backed offensive in a country
Washington sees as a frontline against Islamist militants.
"They are getting ready to fight," one resident, who declined to be named,
told Reuters by telephone. Via text message, the head of the southern
military zone asked people living in the area not to use the roads around
Shaqra and two other towns controlled by militants.
Shaqra lies on Yemen's southern coast, along a major shipping route that is
also the gateway for Somalis entering the country to fight alongside
militants.
The United States and its Gulf allies are alarmed by deteriorating security
in Yemen, where al Qaeda-linked militants gained a foothold during a popular
uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
While Saleh grappled with the protests that eventually toppled him,
militants went on a rampage in the southern province of Abyan, gunning down
officials, looting ammunition depots, and for the first time in history,
seizing territory.
The United States, which helped engineer Saleh's replacement by his deputy
in February, is backing the offensive in the south and has stepped up its
campaign of drone strike assassinations of alleged al Qaeda members who it
says plot attacks from Yemen.
It has also sent dozens of military trainers and stepped up aid to Yemen
where it wants President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to reunify the military and
focus on driving militants from their strongholds in Abyan.
Yemeni troops have moved into the centre of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan
province, where they fought militants on Sunday. They also clashed with
Islamist fighters near the town of Jaar, some 30 km (20 miles) to the north.
"LIKE A PLAGUE"
Meanwhile, two suicide bombers targeting an army checkpoint in Lawdar,
another town in Abyan, killed four people and wounded another, said the
Defence Ministry. The bombers, one of whom was dressed as a woman, were also
killed.
"The attack was targeting Colonel Mohammed Batreeh, the head of military
intelligence in Abyan province," a local official told Reuters. "He
survived, but the innocent people were the ones who got killed."
A third suicide bomber struck in the same place later on, blowing himself up
when volunteer pro-government fighters told him to surrender.
Militants retreated last month from the town of Lawdar, also in Abyan, after
encountering stiff resistance from fighters who have arranged themselves
into popular committees to defend their land.
"Getting rid of those (Islamist fighters) needs time. They are like a
plague," said Abu Saada, a tribesman fighting alongside the army in Abyan.
While fighting raged in the south, at least 34 people were killed in clashes
overnight between Sunni Muslim Salafis and Houthi Shi'ite rebels in northern
Yemen.
The Houthis have exploited political upheaval in Yemen to carve out their
own state within a state in the rugged northern province of Saada, on the
border with Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.
Saudi Arabia, wary of the rising regional power of Shi'ite Iran and
grappling with its own Shi'ite unrest in eastern provinces, fought the
Houthis in northern Yemen in 2009.
The U.S. envoy to Yemen said earlier this year there were signs that Shi'ite
Iran was becoming more active in the country, posing a threat to its
security and stability. Iran denies interfering in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia, a major regional U.S. ally, says Iran is fomenting unrest
among its own Shi'ites in its eastern provinces and in neighbouring
Sunni-led Bahrain.
A spokesman for the Salafis - who see Shi'ites as heretics and espouse a
puritanical creed with many followers in Saudi Arabia - said Houthi fighters
attacked them on Sunday night in the Kataf area of the northern Saada
province.
"We have regained control of a mountain site in the al-Damaj area after
heavy clashes with the Houthis during which 18 of the attackers were killed
along with 16 of ours," the spokesman told Reuters on Monday. Dozens were
wounded in the clashes, he said. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa and
Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; Writing by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Jon
Hemming and Ralph Gowling)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Mon Jun 04 2012 - 17:51:36 EDT
