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Yemeni airstrikes kill 23 al-Qaida militants in south

20 June 2012 23:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A total of 23 al-Qaida militants were killed in airstrikes by Yemeni fighter jets in the southern province of Abyan on Wednesday evening, a security official said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Yemeni fighter jets bombed an al-Qaida convoy in a desert valley near the Mahfad town in Abyan province, leaving at least 23 militants killed and several others injured, the local security official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"Two military aircrafts bombed the al-Qaida convoy with four rockets, destroying three pick-up trucks and killing all the passengers on board," the security official said.

"Senior commanders of the al-Qaida terror group were believed to have been killed in Wednesday’s air bombing. The injured militants were taken to an al-Qaida-run hospital west of Mahfad," he added.

Yemen’s military presses a withering assault aiming at quelling a resurgent branch of al-Qaida which has increased its attacks on both Western and government targets in the Arabian Peninsula state.

The month-long army offensive forced the al-Qaida militants to flee several bastions in the country’s restive southern and eastern provinces which they captured during last year’s political turmoil.

The al-Qaida militants remain in control of the smaller town of Mahfad in Abyan and other cities in neighboring Shabwa province.

Fighting al-Qaida militants in restive south is one of several challenges confronting current President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has promised to launch a national dialogue to settle disputes between all political factions. Also, he has sworn to uproot the Yemeni branch of al-Qaida.