13 die in south Yemen clash while eight killed in friendly fire. By Sara Ghasemilee
Five Yemeni troops and a colonel and seven militants died overnight in clashes in southern Yemen, and army artillery killed eight pro-government tribesmen by mistake, local and tribal officials said on Saturday.
The clashes took place outside Zinjibar, the centre of the province of Abyan where militants have seized several areas, a local official told Reuters. The region lies east of an international shipping lane where 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
A tribal official said the army targeted the tribesmen, whom it mistook for militants as they approached Zinjibar in another area late on Friday.
The militants have posed a rising challenge in recent months to army control in southern Yemen.
Militants belonging to the “Partisans of Sharia” (Islamic law), which is suspected of links to Al Qaeda, took over much of Zinjibar in May. Thousands of residents have since been displaced by fighting there.
The militants have seized several areas in the province of Abyan, raising fears in the West and neighboring Saudi Arabia that Al Qaeda’s Yemen wing is taking advantage of political turmoil and six months of anti-government protests.
Al Qaeda’s regional wing, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released an audio recording by its military commander on Islamist website on Friday in which he vowed to attack the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia.
Deputy Information Minister Abdo Al Janadi said last week that the United States had provided logistical support to the Yemen military’s 25th Mechanized Brigade, which was until recently besieged by the militants in Zinjibar.
US commanders have repeatedly expressed concern that the jihadists have been taking advantage of a protracted power vacuum in Sana’a to expand their operations.
Since January, protesters have been demanding the ouster of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since early June being treated for wounds sustained in a blast at his palace.
On Friday, tens of thousands gathered for protests both for and against Mr. Saleh’s three-decade rule.
(Sara Ghasemilee, Day Editor of A lArabiya English, can be reached at: [email protected])