Yemeni troops backed by Arab coalition air strikes killed more than 800 members of al-Qaeda in an attack on a southeastern provincial capital held by the group for the past year, the coalition said yesterday.
Pro-government forces recaptured an oil terminal as well as the city of Mukalla, which was considered a militant stronghold, military sources said.
“The operation resulted... in the death of more than 800 al-Qaeda members and some of their leaders, while some others fled,” Arab coalition commanders said in a statement published by SPA, the official Saudi news agency.
Photo: AFP
The death toll could not be independently confirmed and no indication was given of civilian casualties.
The operation was part of a wider offensive aimed at securing parts of the country captured by militants who have exploited a 13-month war between Gulf-backed loyalists and rebels supported by Iran.
It coincides with UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait after a ceasefire entered into effect on April 11, but from which militant groups are excluded.
“We entered the city center [of Mukalla] and were met by no resistance from al-Qaeda militants who withdrew west” toward the vast desert in Hadramawt and Shabwa provinces, a military officer said by telephone from the city the militants seized in April last year.
The officer, who requested anonymity, said residents of Mukalla, home to an estimated 200,000 people, had appealed to the militants to spare the city the destruction of fighting and to withdraw.
Yemeni military sources said Emirati military vehicles were used in the operation and that troops from the Gulf country, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition, were among the forces that entered Mukalla.
The Arab coalition battling rebels in Yemen since March 2015 carried out
air strikes against Al-Qaeda positions in Mukalla to pave the way for the
ground troops, military sources said.
Troops also recaptured Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal in Shehr further east, the sources said.
Earlier on Sunday, military sources said pro-government forces seized Riyan airport and an army brigade headquarters al-Qaeda had held for a year on Mukalla’s outskirts.
Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is regarded by Washington as the network’s most dangerous branch and has carried out deadly attacks on the West in the past.
Last month, a US air strike on an al-Qaeda training camp in Hadramawt province killed dozens of fighters in a major blow to the militants.
A provincial official in Shabwa said militants also fled from the town of Azzan on Sunday which they seized in February.
As the anti-militants offensive gained momentum, a bomb-laden vehicle exploded on Sunday, killing seven soldiers and wounding 14. They were in a convoy entering another southern militant stronghold — Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, military sources said, blaming al-Qaeda for the attack.
The coalition, led by Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, has deployed Apache helicopters to support loyalists fighting on the ground.
Forces loyal to internationally recognized Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi’s government have retreated from Zinjibar after entering it late Saturday, an officer said.
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