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Yemen: Up to 34 al-Qaida militants killed
[December 17, 2009] SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- Security forces struck several al-Qaida hideouts and training camps in Yemen on Thursday, killing up to 34 suspected militants, including four would-be suicide bombers, and arresting 17 others.
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Provincial security official Saleh el-Shamsy said airstrikes followed by a ground operation targeting a training camp in Abyan province south of San'a killed up to 30 suspected militants. A security official and witnesses, meanwhile, said civilians were caught up in the government offensive in Abyan, with several homes destroyed in the airstrikes and others stormed by troops who mistook them for al-Qaida hideouts. One witness, 33-year-old Mohammed Saleh al-Kathimi, said seven bodies of women and children have so far been recovered from the rubble. The claims by the witnesses and the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, could not be independently confirmed. Separately, the Interior Ministry said operations were carried out in areas outside San'a, killing four would-be suicide bombers and arresting 17 suspected militants. The suicide bombers were in the Arhab district northeast of the capital. It said the four were preparing to strike at unidentified government installations. Yemen, an impoverished Arab nation in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is troubled by a weak central government and a growing al-Qaida presence. Yemen also is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden. The government has for years cooperated with the U.S. in the fight against al-Qaida but has also struggled in dealing with its homegrown Islamic extremism. |
