[Al Arabiya Latest] Suspected al-Qaeda fighters were fleeing the embattled picturesque city of Loder in southern Yemen following gunbattles and an assault by government forces in which dozens have died, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.That's some tourist trap ...
In the latest fighting, "four al-Qaeda members were killed while the rest fled after evacuating their injured," a ministry statement said.
"The chiefs of the terrorist elements have started to flee Loder," the ministry said.
Civilians had hurried out of the of the southern city in the restive Abyan province in the wake of an army siege that followed clashes which began on Friday.
An army search of homes where the forces of Evil were barricaded had found a large stash of weapons, including rockets and anti-tank weapons, the ministry said.
At least 33 people, among them 11 soldiers, 19 suspected forces of Evil and three civilians, have been killed since the clashes erupted, according to an AFP count based on official and medical sources.
Authorities said Adel Saleh Hardaba, 27, whom they described as the al-Qaeda second-in-command in Loder, was among the dead.
Witnesses said the fighting had intensified after Sunday night, when an ultimatum to forces of Evil to surrender had expired.
The army had distributed pamphlets urging any civilians left in Loder, which has a population of 80,000, to leave.
"Only gunnies left"
Security officials had told AFP at the weekend that civilians had mostly fled the picturesque city and that "only gunnies are left." Many of the forces of Evil were believed to be foreigners, notably Saudis and Paks.
South Yemen, and Abyan province in particular, is feared to have become a base for al-Qaeda forces of Evil to regroup under the network's local franchise, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Largely tribal Yemen is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Yemeni forces have stepped up the hunt for al-Qaeda suspects since AQAP took credit for a failed Christmas airliner bomb plot over Detroit in the United States.
Among the top forces of Evil reportedly hiding in Yemen is Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American who has been placed on a U.S. government hit list.
The U.S. government in July said Awlaki was a key AQAP leader, placing him on its list of terrorism supporters, freezing his financial assets and banning any transactions with him.
In April, a U.S. official said President Barack
B.O.Obama's administration had authorized the assassination of Awlaki, after American intelligence agencies concluded the cleric was directly involved in anti-U.S. plots.
Yemen, the poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula, is battling a host of other problems, including a Shiite rebellion in the north and a separatist movement in the south.