Militants kill 32 Yemeni troops in raid
ADEN: Al-qaeda gunmen yesterday launched spectacular attacks on two army posts in south Yemen, killing at least 32 soldiers, apparently to avenge the death of a top militant in an air raid, a military official said.
Militants attacked the military posts outside the city of Zinjibar, which they have controlled since May last year, said the official. Four officers were among those killed, he said. A medic in Aden confirmed the toll, adding that 40 others were wounded.
Some 25 other soldiers have not been accounted for, the military official said, adding that dozens of militants took part in the attack, some of whom arrived by sea.
In a similar attack in March, militants killed about 100 troops in Zinjibar after Hadi took office.
A medic in the town of Jaar, which is also controlled by Al-qaeda, said 16 militants were killed in the gunfights around Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, and their bodies were evacuated to Jaar.
Witnesses in Jaar said that Al-qaeda fighters who returned from the raid paraded some 35 captured soldiers, while they brandished Al-qaeda black flags and chanted slogans.
The attacks came after Yemeni Al-qaeda leader Fahd Al-quso, who was wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was killed in an air strike in eastern Yemen on Sunday. The October 2000 attack on the US Navy destroyer in Yemen’s port of Aden killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.
Quso was killed when two missiles slammed near his home in Rafadh, east of Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa province, a tribal chief said, adding that two of the suspect’s bodyguards were also killed in the raid. Residents of the village and the militant group, Ansar Al-shariah, said the missile was fired from a US drone. A drone strike last year killed a US citizen who U.S. officials subsequently claimed had helped plan a failed attack on the US airliner.
Quso’s name figured on an FBI list of most wanted terrorists, along with a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
“They attacked our positions in retaliation for the killing of Fahd Al-quso,” said a military official.
He said the army had been anticipating Al-qaeda to retaliate for the killing of Quso, saying that an alert was sent out to all units to expect an attack by the “enemy” following Sunday’s air raid.
Several military officials in Sanaa said yesterday that such air strikes are launched by US aircraft and coordinated by President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and the army and intelligence leaderships.
In his first public speech since taking office following February elections, Hadi, who succeeded veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh after he stepped down following a year of protests, vowed to intensify the war against Al-qaeda.
“The war against terrorists has not started yet, and will not be over before we purge every province and village so that the displaced can return home peacefully,” Hadi warned last week.
The militants, who have renamed themselves the Partisans of Shariah control parts of southern and eastern Yemen where the authority of Sanaa is weak.
In another part Abyan province, Al-qaeda fighters attacked the town of Lawder during the night from three different sides and clashed with army and gunmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, an anti-alQaeda militia. Four armed locals were wounded.