Yemeni troops kill 30 al-Qaeda militants

PanARMENIAN.Net - Yemeni troops killed at least 30 suspected al-Qaeda linked fighters in a third day of clashes on Wednesday, April 11 as the government sought to gain the upper hand in its increasingly violent confrontation with Islamist militants, Reuters reported.

Local officials and residents said the fighting occurred on Jebel Yasuf, a mountain 10 km (6 miles) from the southern town of Lawdar, where dozens of people have been killed since Monday after Ansar al-Sharia militants attacked an army camp.

At least eight people were killed in continued fighting in the vicinity on Tuesday.

Militants, emboldened by a year of upheaval in Yemen, want to exploit weakened government control to spread their influence. In Abyan, where Lawdar is located, they already hold large swathes of territory.

A senior government official said the fighting around Lawdar marked a turning point in the army's confrontation with Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) following a series of defeats by the militant group.

The Defense Ministry said in a text message it had destroyed a number of checkpoints set up by militants on a main road linking Lawdar to the neighboring province of al-Bayda, re-opening the route. It also cited unnamed military sources as saying that Saudi Arabian, Pakistani and Somali nationals were among the militants killed in the Lawdar area.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi vowed to fight al-Qaeda and its affiliates when he took office earlier this year after his predecessor quit under pressure from anti-government protesters and foreign powers anxious to halt a slide into mayhem.