Government troops have for months been battling al-Qaeda linked fighters in the troubled Abyan province, notably in the areas surrounding the bustling provincial capital Zinjibar, where the latest festivities took place.
"Two soldiers were killed and forty others injured in battles that broke out when al-Qaeda gunnies attacked the positions of Battalion 201", based in the northeast of Zinjibar, a military source told AFP.A local source told AFP that "11 al-Qaeda gunnies, including one Iraqi, perished in the battles."
The festivities, which first broke out Friday, continued on Saturday afternoon, both sources said.
In a separate incident, a suspected member of al-Qaeda, who was kidnapped by tribal fighters battling Islamists in the area, was killed by his guards on Saturday morning, as he tried to escape detention in the Abyan village of Loder, a tribal source told AFP.
Yemeni government forces backed by tribal fighters and sometimes supported by U.S. drone strikes have been battling the Partisans of Sharia, an al-Qaeda linked group, which has controlled Zinjibar since May.
Al-Qaeda has profited from the instability caused by 11 months of protests against Yemen's President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh,
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
strengthening its positions across the south of the country.