Yemen launches more airstrikes on Al-Qaeda
Published: Mar 15, 2010 23:37 Updated: Mar 15, 2010 23:37
SANAA: Yemen carried out airstrikes against what it said were Al-Qaeda targets in a southern province on Monday, a day after the government said it killed two militants there in a similar raid.
Yemeni security forces carried out three air strikes in the southern Abyan province on Monday morning, local officials and residents told Reuters, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries.
Abyan is one of the provinces that has seen an escalation in violence between southern separatists and government forces in recent weeks.
A security official said on Sunday the government had carried out an air strike on an Al-Qaeda position in Abyan, killing two top militants planning attacks.
Sanaa, which has been targeting secessionists in security sweeps across southern Yemen, offered talks earlier this month to hear separatists’ grievances. While protests have diminished in recent days, some violence has continued.
Yemen shot to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemen-based regional arm of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a US-bound plane in December.
Western allies and neighboring oil exporter Saudi Arabia fear Al-Qaeda is exploiting instability on multiple fronts in the impoverished country to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.
Yemen, in addition to its conflict with southern separatists, is also trying to bring an end to a northern insurgency that in November drew in Saudi Arabia.
It sealed a truce with northern rebels last month. While insurgent violence in north Yemen has faded, conflict has escalated with separatists in the south.
North and South Yemen united in 1990, but many in the south — home to most of Yemen’s oil industry — complain northerners have seized resources and discriminate against them.
