Government forces attack al-Qaida in SE Yemen amid intensified Saudi-led air raids

Yemeni government forces supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a military campaign against militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot in the southeastern province Hadramout on Sunday, a military official told Xinhua.

The official said local forces trained by the Saudi-led coalition and supported by the United Arab Emirates armored vehicles began an anti-terror offensive to drive al-Qaida militants out of Hadramout's provincial capital of Mukalla city.

Warplanes of the Saudi-led Arab coalition provided air power and air-covered the pro-government forces that engaged in armed confrontations with al-Qaida near Mukalla city.

"The fighter jets fired sever missiles and struck buildings controlled by al-Qaida including the 2nd Military Base and the Republican Palace in Mukalla," the military source said on condition of anonymity.

Local residents confirmed to Xinhua that headquarters of Yemen Economic Cooperation (YECO) held by scores of al-Qaida militants were hit by air strikes.

Local medical sources at Ibn Sina Public Hospital said that more than 12 al-Qaida militants were killed and dozens others injured including civilians.

Extremist groups of the al-Qaida and the Islamic State (IS) are in control of the coastal city of Mukalla and other neighborhoods in Hadramout province for about a year.

On Saturday, hundreds of Yemeni forces newly trained by the Saudi-led coalition carried out an anti-terror campaign to flush out al-Qaida militants from the southern Abyan province.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

The AQAP, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in Yemen's southern part.

The already fragile security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when an all-out war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government troops backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and air strikes since then, half of them civilians.

Source: XINHUA