Yemen Says Army Captures Al Qaeda Stronghold
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Yemeni government forces captured al Qaeda's main stronghold in the southern part of the country after insurgents blew up the local government compound there and fled, the Defense Ministry said.
The mountainous al-Mahfad area of Abyan province, along with Azzan in the adjacent province of Shabwa, has been the militants' main stronghold in Yemen since 2012. In that year, the Yemeni army, with US help, drove the fighters from towns they had seized during a chaotic national uprising in 2011.
Major powers are keen on Yemen curbing the insurgents and restoring order in the south to prevent threats to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia next door. They also want to reduce any risk of Yemen being used as a springboard for attacks on Western targets, Reuters reported.
The government forces' offensive is the most concerted drive against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - seen by Washington as one of the group's most lethal wings - in nearly two years. The group has been blamed for waging deadly attacks against security forces, foreigners and oil and gas facilities.
The Yemeni Defense Ministry's website quoted an official military source as saying that soldiers and allied tribal militias - known as 'popular committees' - had entered al-Mahfad, a town of about 30,000-40,000 inhabitants on the main road from Abyan to the eastern al-Mahra province.
"The source said al Qaeda elements blew up the government building in al-Mahfad," the ministry cited the source as saying.
A local militia commander, Amin Qassem, later told Reuters by telephone that the militants had put up stiff resistance.
"The army and the Popular Committee members have completed control of al-Mahfad and we are now in the center of the district. Al Qaeda elements have fled to the mountains, but we will keep going after them," Qassem said.
Authorities have said dozens of militants of several nationalities have been killed during the latest offensive, now into its second week.
