Security forces launch anti-terror offensive in southern Yemen

Yemeni security forces newly trained by the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched an anti-terror offensive to flush out al-Qaida militants from the southern province of Abyan on Saturday, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

The troops and allied pro-government tribal militias, known as Southern Resistance, supported by UAE armored vehicles advanced into the al-Qaida-held city of Zinjibar, Abyan's provincial capital, after intense clashes with al-Qaida militants there, the security source said on condition of anonymity.

A high-ranking commander of the Special Security Forces in Abyan told Xinhua that the UAE-backed security forces "made significant progress against al-Qaida key hideouts in Abyan, and several areas surrounding Zinjibar were totally cleansed from the terrorists."

He said that the all-out military operation against al-Qaida militants will continue during the upcoming hours until liberating Zinjibar, Abyan's provincial capital, and all the surrounding cities from the terrorists.

So far, the troops have made slow progress due to large number of roadside bombs and landmines leading to the al-Qaida-held city of Zinjibar, a tribal source who is participating in the attack alongside the security forces told Xinhua.

More than 16 al-Qaida militants were killed and dozens injured in the ongoing fighting, the trial source said, adding that five security member were also killed.

Scores of the extremist militants fled from Al-Kud village and headed into Zinjibar after sustaining heavy casualties among their fighters and vehicles, according to the local sources.

Hundreds of families were forced to leave their houses in Zinjibar city due to the exchange of random shelling between the security forces and al-Qaida militants, according to local residents.

Last December, gunmen of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) took full control over two strategic towns in neighboring southern Abyan province, about 45 km from Aden, where Yemen's internationally recognized government has based itself.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

The AQAP, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in Yemen's southern part.

Security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians. Endit