ADEN // Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi-led coalition air strikes on Sunday drove Al Qaeda militants out of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, and the neighbouring city of Jaar in a renewed offensive against the extremist group.
Abyan governor Al Khader Mohammed Al Saidi said three brigades took part in the operation and that troops have “taken complete control of both cities”.
Forty Al Qaeda members were killed in both cities while the rest had fled, Mr Al Saidi said, adding that three soldiers were killed and several wounded in the operation.
Maj Gen Ahmed Seif Al Yafei, commander of the Fourth Military Region, confirmed the death tolls and said the militants had fled into the mountains under heavy fire and air strikes that also destroyed several of their vehicles.
Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi praised the government forces for the operation, as well as the support provided by the coalition forces, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the Yemen News Agency reported.
A Yemeni army source told the agency that in addition to Zinjibar and Jaar, government troops and resistance fighters also drove Al Qaeda militants out of Al Kode, Al Makhzan, Al Joal and Al Mesaimeer.
The operation was launched on Sunday morning when dozens of armoured vehicles and hundreds of pro-government troops set out from Aden city towards Zinjibar.
There was heavy fighting west of Zinjibar as Al Qaeda fighters tried to stop their advance in the Dofas valley, but government forces reached the capital at noon, a journalist in Zinjibar said.
"The residents of Zinjibar welcomed the pro-government forces when they arrived, while the Al Qaeda fighters fled towards Jaar district," the journalist told The National, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said the pro-government forces had taken control of all government buildings in Zinjibar.
Reinforcements arrived in Zinjibar as government force prepared to pursue the Al Qaeda fighters into other parts of Abyan, he said.
“The Saudi-led airstrikes helped the ground forces to take over Zinjibar and were targeting Al Qaeda fighters in the other district to facilitate the advance of the ground forces,” he said.
Al Qaeda first seized Zinjibar and Jaar in 2011, but the Yemeni army and allied militias known as popular committees liberated the two districts in early 2012.
Al Qaeda took advantage of the war between the government and Houthi rebels to seize Zinjibar again, along with other districts, last year. Government forces backed by the coalition recaptured the area in April as part of an offensive against Al Qaeda in southern Yemen that also liberated Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province.
However, Al Qaeda retook Zinjibar within a month following a campaign of suicide bombings that forced government troops to withdraw.
Meanwhile on Sunday, coalition air strikes targeted the Houthi rebels in Sanaa and the provinces of Taez, Saada and Hajja, and clashes were reported in the Nihm district of Sanaa province and Taez city.
The fighting has intensified since August 6, when the United Nations suspended peace talks after the rebels declared they were unilaterally setting up a council to rule Yemen along with the political party of their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The 10 members of the council were sworn in before the Yemeni parliament on Sunday, a day after it was endorsed in a parliamentary session convened by the rebels that president Hadi declared illegal. Only 144 of the 301 members attended the session – all of them supporters of the Houthis and Mr Saleh.
Also on Sunday, the coalition denied targeting a Yemeni school in air strikes that killed 10 children, saying it bombed a camp at which the rebels were training underage soldiers.
The international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said the children were killed on Saturday in coalition air raids on a school in Haydan, a town in rebel-held Saada province.
Coalition spokesman Gen Ahmed Al Assiri said the strikes hit a Houthi training camp, killing militia fighters including a leader identified as Yehya Munassar Abu Rabua.
“The site that was bombed ... is a major training camp for militia,” he said. “Why would children be at a training camp?”
Yemen’s government had confirmed to the coalition that “there is no school in this area”, he said.
Gen Al Assiri said MSF’s toll “confirms the Houthis’ practice of recruiting and subjecting children to terror”.
“They ... use them as scouts, guards, messengers and fighters,” the general said, noting previous reports from Human Rights Watch on the rebels’ use of underage recruits.
“When jets target training camps, they cannot distinguish between ages,” he said.
Ten days ago the coalition acknowledged shortcomings in two out of eight cases it investigated of strikes on civilian targets in Yemen that the UN has condemned.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With reporting from Wam, Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
