Al Qa'eda 'fleeing' after Yemen gunbattle

Suspected al Qa'eda fighters were fleeing the city of Loder today after an assault by government forces in which dozens have died

ADEN // Suspected Al Qa'eda fighters were fleeing the embattled city of Loder in southern Yemen today after gunbattles and an assault by government forces in which dozens have died, the Yemeni interior ministry said. In the latest fighting, "four al Qa'eda members were killed while the rest fled after evacuating their injured," a ministry statement said. "The chiefs of the terrorist elements have started to flee Loder", the ministry said.

Civilians had hurried out of the of the southern city in the province of Abyan province in the wake of an army siege that followed clashes which began on Friday. An army search of homes where the militants were barricaded had found a large stash of weapons, including rockets and anti-tank weapons, the ministry said. At least 33 people, among them 11 soldiers, 19 suspected militants and three civilians, have been killed since the clashes erupted, according to an AFP count based on official and medical sources.

Authorities said Adel Saleh Hardaba, 27, whom they described as the al Qa'eda second-in-command in Loder, was among the dead. Witnesses said the fighting had intensified after Sunday night, when an ultimatum to militants to surrender had expired. The army had distributed pamphlets urging any civilians left in Loder, which has a population of 80,000, to leave. Security officials had told AFP at the weekend that civilians had mostly fled the city and that "only gunmen are left". Many of the militants were believed to be foreigners, notably Saudis and Pakistanis.

South Yemen, and Abyan province in particular, is feared to have become a base for al Qa'eda militants to regroup under the network's local franchise, al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula. Yemeni forces have stepped up the hunt for al Qa'eda suspects since al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for a failed airliner bomb plot over Detroit in the United States at Christmas. Among the top militants reportedly hiding in Yemen is Anwar al Awlaki, a Yemeni-American who has been placed on a US government hit list.

The US government in July said Awlaki was a key Al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula leader, placing him on its list of terrorism supporters, freezing his financial assets and banning any transactions with him. In April, a US official said president Barack Obama's administration had authorised the targeted killing of Mr al Awlaki, after American intelligence agencies concluded the cleric was directly involved in anti-US plots.

* AFP