[An Nahar] Yemeni troops launched an all-out offensive on Saturday to retake the southern city of Zinjibar, held for a year by al-Qaeda gunnies, in fighting that killed 12 people, military and local sources said.The "wide offensive" began from three sides and is supported by the air force and the navy," said a military official, adding that Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed is supervising the operation from nearby.
"The defense minister is supervising a military plan to regain control of the city of Zinjibar and (the neighboring town of) Jaar from al-Qaeda gunnies," the official said.
Two soldiers, including a colonel, were killed in the fighting, while 12 others were maimed, he said.
Six fighters of the al-Qaeda-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), were also killed in the attack, said a tribal source in Jaar, to where the gunnies evacuate their casualties.
The beturbanned goons took control of Zinjibar, the picturesque provincial capital of Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an
Islamic Emirateafter seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
, last May. They also control Jaar and other parts of the province.
Military units also attacked Jaar from the west, the military official said, adding that troops reached the area of Kadama, on the outskirts of the town.
In the morning, air strikes hit Jaar, killing three al-Qaeda gunnies and a civilian, and wounding three civilians, a tribal source said.
The air raids were to pave the way for advancing troops, said another military official.
Yemen's new president, Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, vowed last week to intensify the war against al-Qaeda, which has made much of the lawless southern and eastern part of the country a safe haven.
"The war against bully boyz has not started yet, and will not be over before we purge every province and village so that the displaced can return home peacefully," he warned.