In the raids staged on Thursday, the jet also attacked two
sites where militants had gathered in the town of Zinjibar, the official told
Reuters. He was unable to give details of casualties there.
Shaqra fell to the militants on Wednesday, becoming the
third Yemeni town they have seized following Jaar in Abyan province in March
and Zinjibar, the provincial capital, in May.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government has lost control
of some areas in the south after months of political turmoil and mass protests
demanding an end to his three-decade-old-rule.
Militants, some possibly from Al-Qaeda, may be exploiting a
security vacuum as Saleh and his allies fight to stay in power.
In a separate incident, 10 people — mostly women and
children — were injured in an explosion at a clothes market in Al-Qatn in the
southern Hadramout province on Thursday, which targeted an army officer and his
family, a security official told Reuters.
Eyewitnesses said they saw a man throwing a hand grenade who
then fled in a car. The officer and his family survived unhurt, the official
said.
Saleh, in power since 1978, said on Tuesday he would soon
return home from Saudi Arabia where he is recovering from a June assassination
attempt in which he was wounded and burned.
Popular protests against Saleh erupted during uprisings that
ousted the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt this year, but the Yemeni leader has
clung to power, defying international pressure and three times backing out of a
Gulf-brokered transition deal.
Protesters and opposition parties suspect Saleh has
deliberately loosened security to let militants act more freely, in an attempt
to illustrate the dangers of a Yemen without him.
