The Yemeni army destroyed five homes suspected of hiding al-Qaeda militants on Tuesday as a siege of a southern village entered its second day, but officials denied reports that US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was among those surrounded.
Government forces have moved into the village of Hawta with tanks and armored vehicles, and thousands of people have fled the area to escape the fighting, which officials say is targeting a 120-man militant cell.
Troops also fired on the vehicles of residents fleeing the village and another nearby trouble spot, the city of Lawder, killing two civilians and wounding three others, local government and medical officials said.
Security officials said the homes that were destroyed were empty.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.
Shabwa Province Governor Ali al-Hamadi said an al-Qaeda sniper wounded a soldier and a civilian on Tuesday as security forces advanced into the village of al-Bareeqa, a few kilometers away from Hawta.
An unofficial Web site run by government opponents, Alganob.net, reported that al-Awlaki was among those who had been surrounded.
However, the chief municipal official, Atiq Baouda, and the security officials denied that he was in the area under siege. The Yemeni army refused to comment on the operation.
Al-Awlaki played a key part in the failed Christmas Day attempt by terrorists to take down a Detroit-bound passenger jet.
Yemen says it is waging an aggressive US-backed campaign to uproot the terror network’s local offshoot, which Washington considers a major threat.
Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemen embassy in Washington, said the operation was in response to a recent attempted attack on a liquefied natural gas pipeline.
He said the military had surrounded the area and was cutting off access in and out of the town.
“Most likely, they’ll enter the area in the next 24 hours,” Albasha said.
He said the operation has nothing to do with al-Awlaki.
“His hometown is hundreds of miles away,” Albasha said.
Monday’s start of the operation coincided with a visit to Yemen by US President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, for talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other senior officials.
The White House said on Tuesday that Brennan’s trip had nothing to do with increased military actions there.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Yemeni government has been actively involved in the struggle against extremist groups, and he believed Brennan “extended the continued message of our support for their efforts to do so.”
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