Yemen clashes kill 7

(AFP)

ADEN, Yemen, June 12, 2011— A Yemeni colonel, two soldiers and four suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in clashes in the flashpoint southern city of Zinjibar on Sunday, a military official and medics said.

"I lost one of my men, Colonel Salem al-Zuba," who was killed in fierce clashes with Al-Qaeda gunmen, an officer of the besieged 25th mechanised brigade told AFP.

A medic at a military hospital in Aden said the bodies of two soldiers were brought in from clashes in Zinjibar, which was mostly overrun by suspected Al-Qaeda militants last month.

Al-Razi hospital in the nearby town of Jaar, meanwhile, "received the bodies of four Al-Qaeda militants, in addition to five others wounded," a medic told AFP.

An unidentified spokeman claiming to represent the gunmen in Zinjibar told AFP by telephone that the jihadists "stormed part of the camp of the 25th brigade," a report denied by the officer.

Residents said fighter planes overflew Zinjibar on Sunday.