Ten people were killed in fighting between al-Qaeda gunnies and the army for control of the jihadists' stronghold town of Shuqra in southern Yemen's 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...
province, a local official said yesterday.
"Clashes using machineguns between al-Qaeda gunnies and the army, backed by local militiamen, left two soldiers dead and 11 maimed," the official in Shuqra told AFP.
He said eight jihadists were also killed in the fighting late on Wednesday.
Fierce festivities between the gunnies and troops trying to retake Shuqra -- the only Abyan town besides Mahfad which cut-throats still hold -- broke out earlier the same day.
On Tuesday, the military drove the jihadists out of the the scenic provincial capital Zinjibar and Jaar, another town. Al-Qaeda gunnies are believed to have fled east to Shuqra.