By AHMED AL-HAJ
May 16, 2012
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Government troops and warplanes pounded al-Qaida
positions in southern Yemen on Wednesday, killing at least 29 militants as part
of a ramped up campaign against the group, military officials said.
Al-Qaida-linked fighters have taken over a swath of territory and
several towns in the south, including the Abyan provincial capital of Zinjibar,
in the past year, pushing out government forces and setting up their own rule.
In recent weeks, the army has launched a concerted effort to dislodge the
militants from their strongholds — and is closely coordinating with U.S. troops
who are helping guide the operations from inside Yemen.
On Wednesday, Yemeni airstrikes hit a farm in Moudia, some 40 kilometers
(25 miles) east of the town of Lawder in Abyan, where al-Qaida fighters were
holed up, killing at least 16 militants including top local commander Samir
al-Fathani, officials said.
Witnesses said plumes of smoke drifted over the site, which was littered
with the charred wreckage of two destroyed vehicles.
Al-Fathani's brother, Abdel-Monem al-Fathani, was involved in the
bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000 and was killed in a U.S. airstrike in
Abyan in late January.
The fighting is part of a four-front offensive the military began
Tuesday, using warplanes and heavy artillery to clear the way for an assault by
ground troops on towns where al-Qaida fighters are either operating or in
control. For the first time, Yemen's army is receiving direct help from U.S.
troops, who are operating from a desert air base near the main battle zones to
help coordinate assaults and airstrikes, according to Yemeni officials.
The officials said it was the most direct American involvement yet in
the country's expanding campaign against al-Qaida's branch in Yemen, which has
been blamed for directing a string of unsuccessful bomb plots on U.S. soil from
its hideouts in the impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
On Wednesday, tribal militiamen fighting alongside government forces
killed 13 militants who were trying to retake a strategic hilltop, Youssef
Mountain, overlooking Lawder. Two militiamen were killed in the fighting,
officials said.
On another front in Zinjibar, hit-and-run gunbattles between government
troops and al-Qaida fighters left four soldiers dead, according to a military
hospital official.
Also, a security official said a Jordanian surgeon was arrested on
suspicion he was heading to Zinjibar to join al-Qaida.
All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are
not authorized to brief the media.
The fighting in Abyan, particularly around the town of Jaar, has
resulted in scores of civilian casualties, the International Committee of the
Red Cross said Wednesday. It did not provide numbers.
"We are extremely concerned about the increasing number of
casualties and about allegations of airstrikes in civilian locations,"
said Eric Marclay, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen.
The ICRC called on all parties to distinguish between civilians and
fighters, and protect health care workers operating in the areas.
In the last three months, the ICRC said it tended to around 100,000
internally displaced people and residents in Abyan, providing them with food
and other material.
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