Four al Qaeda gunnies and a soldier were killed in overnight fighting outside Zinjibar, capital of the southern Yemeni province 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...
, a military official said on Saturday.
The bully boyz had fired three rockets at the headquarters of the 25th Mechanised Brigade, killing the soldier and wounding six others.
Separately, three al Qaeda beturbanned goons were killed and five maimed on Friday when a bomb they were making accidentally went
kaboom!in Al-Mahfad, a town in northern Abyan, a local official said.
Yemeni forces launched an all-out offensive on May 12 aimed at reclaiming Zinjibar and other localities in Abyan lost to al Qaeda during the past year.
Since the offensive began, at least 376 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally compiled from official statements. They comprised 275 al Qaeda gunnies, 65 military personnel, 18 local cut-throats and 18 civilians.