ADEN: Yemeni troops sent Al-Qaeda fighters routed from the southern city of Loder yesterday and pressed towards militant-controlled Zinjibar, military officials said, as an army offensive pushed into a sixth day.
"We have cleansed Loder (of Al-Qaeda) and the fighters have been forced to flee," a military official involved in the assault told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said that Al-Qaeda gunmen retreated from three positions on the outskirts of Loder, in southern Abyan province, which they have been trying to overrun for several months.
Thousands of Loder residents took to the streets to celebrate the minor military victory while gunmen from the local militias danced and waved their guns in the air.
"Today we accomplished a great victory against Al-Qaeda," said Ali Ahmed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees militia, comprising local residents who are fighting alongside the army against Al-Qaeda.
The bodies of three soldiers, three local gunmen, and two Al-Qaeda fighters were discovered near the city yesterday, one military official said but gave no further details.
One civilian was also killed and five others injured in an army raid on the town of Shaqra, also controlled by Al-Qaeda, a local official said. Yesterday's casualties bring the death toll from six days of fighting to at least 158, including 105 Al-Qaeda operatives, 23 soldiers, 17 civilians and 13 militiamen.
The Yemeni military, backed by US experts, will now turn their attention to Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, which the extremists have held for the past year. The army has failed in several attempts to retake Zinjibar, but officials and diplomats said Wednesday that the military was making progress in its assault.
The Yemeni airforce pounded targets in the southern cities of Shaqra and Arqoub, both near Zinjibar late Wednesday, and fierce battles continue in the city's vicinity.
Also yesterday, a suspected US drone strike killed three Al-Qaeda militants in eastern Yemen, a local official said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the three Al-Qaeda suspects were killed in a strike on their car in Shibam, a historic city in Yemen's Hadramawt province.
Air strikes on Al-Qaeda targets in Yemen have increased since the launch of the offensive against the extremist group and after newly-elected President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi vowed to fight the network.
His latest pledge to destroy Al-Qaeda came just days after the White House announced that a plot by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the name given to the group's local Yemen branch, to blow up a US airliner had been successfully thwarted.
A force of around 20,000 soldiers from all regions in the south, are believed to be engaged in the operation. They are backed by the local militias in the towns and cities in the south that since the ouster of veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh have thrown their support behind the Yemeni military.
