Yemeni Forces sent to south

YEMEN: Yemen has deployed new anti-terrorism forces in the country’s restive south, the interior ministry announced Saturday, as Washington urged Sanaa to step up its fight against Al-Qaeda.

The announcement follows a spate of deadly attacks on government and military targets in the south, the latest on Friday when according to a security official a suspected Al-Qaeda militant shot dead an off-duty soldier who ferried him on his motor-bike taxi in Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province.

The Yemeni government is deploying the anti-terrorism units in the four southern and southeastern provinces of Hadramawt, Abyan, Shabwa and Marib, the ministry said in a statement on its website. The creation of these units will “bring the confrontation with the members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network to a critical stage” and “tighten the noose around it,” it said.

Aden, Sunday, AFP