Two hundred killed in Yemen Qaeda fight

YEMEN: At least 230 Yemeni soldiers were killed in fighting with militants linked to Al-Qaeda that led to the lifting of the siege of a brigade imposed three months ago, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

Another 50 tribal auxiliaries allied to the government were also killed.

“The southern military region lost more than 230 martyrs in the fighting” to lift the siege of the 25th Mechanised Brigade’s base in Zinjibar, state news agency Saba quoted Defence Minister General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed as saying. Earlier, Saba quoted Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi as telling European diplomats that 90 soldiers at the besieged base and 30 Al-Qaeda leaders had been killed in Zinjibar since militants seized it on May 29.

But the agency said the military casualties announced by Hadi did not include dozens of soldiers from outside the ranks of the 25th Mechanised Brigade who were killed or wounded in the battle to retake Zinjibar and two other towns.

Ahmed, who inspected the Zinjibar base on Sunday morning, a day after the siege was lifted, added that tribal fighters who fought alongside government forces against the militants had lost more than 50 men.

The latest figures take to more than 280 the number of soldiers and tribal fighters killed in the offensive to retake Zinjibar, capital of the restive southern Yemeni province of Abyan.

The government announced on Saturday that the army had “liberated” Zinjibar after its seizure more than three months ago by a group called the Partisans of Sharia, believed to have links to Al-Qaeda.

Aden, Monday, AFP