SANAA // Al Qaeda militants captured a town in south-west Yemen in an attack seen as a way to counter advances by Shiite rebels sweeping across the country.
Rival groups are seeking to exploit a power vacuum exposed in a political deadlock since the Houthi Shiite rebels took control of the capital last month.
Al Qaeda’s Yemen-based franchise, considered by the United States to be the deadliest branch, has vowed to fight the rebels in defence of Sunnis.
Its militants stormed the town of Udain overnight, setting fire to the police headquarters and attacking the offices of the local government, a security official and local sources said Thursday.
Five policemen were killed.
The offensive came just hours after Shiite rebels overran the provincial capital of Ibb located 20 kilometres to the east.
Yemen has been wracked by political turmoil and sporadic violence since an uprising toppled the dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012.
Al Qaeda is active in several Yemeni provinces, mainly in the south and southeast, where repeated government military campaigns drove the network’s militants out of key cities they once controlled.
The push into Udain appeared to be in retaliation for the Houthis’ capture of Ibb, a local official said.
Already in control of Sanaa and the strategic port city of Hodeidah, the Shiite rebels on Wednesday appeared to have taken control, unopposed, of the Dhamar and Ibb provinces, security officials said.
They have been taking advantage of the political crisis in Sanaa to seize significant areas, threatening the authority of the Sunni-led central government.
The Houthis have kept up their advance despite the naming of a new prime minister on Monday by president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi in a bid to resolve the stalemate.
The steady expansion of the rebels has increased the threat of an open confrontation with Al Qaeda.
Fighting broke out on Tuesday when the Houthis tried to expand out of the town of Rada in central Baida and clashed with Al Qaeda militants.
Five rebels, six suspected Al Qaeda militants and a civilian were killed during the fighting in Rada, a security official and tribal sources said on Wednesday.
* Agence France-Presse