SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen said its security forces backed by warplanes killed at least 30 al Qaeda militants Thursday and a security source added that the operations have thwarted a series of suicide bombings.
According to a government website, Yemeni forces hit several targets of al Qaeda, including a training center in the southern province of Abyan. This led to the deaths of between 24 and 30 militants, including foreigners, but did not specify their nationalities.
The security source told Reuters the total security forces killed 34 Al Qaeda militants and arrested 17 others in Abyan and Arhab district, north of the capital Sanaa.
“The operation led to thwart an Al Qaeda seeking to attack local and foreign interests, in addition to schools, and included eight suicide bombers wearing explosive belts which were preparing to carry out the plan, “the source said.
A website quoted opposition sources in Abyan saying that 53 people were killed, including people and leaders of Al Qaeda, but most of the victims were women and children.
U.S. President Barack Obama, called his counterpart from Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, as saying the operation “confirms the decision of Yemen in confronting the terrorist threat represented by Al Qaeda to Yemen and the world,” said state news agency Saba.
Obama said Washington understood the concern of San”a on a rebellion in the north, and supported the unity of Yemen, Saba said.
Besides fighting al Qaeda militants, Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, faces a Shi”ite rebellion in the north and separatist unrest in the south.
Yemen joined the anti-terrorist war in Washington in the wake of September 11, 2001 against U.S. cities.
In 2002 a U.S. missile launched in Yemen killed a militant suspected of masterminding the suicide bombing of 2000 in warship U.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors.
Analysts say such conflicts, along with a decrease in revenues from oil, water shortages and a humanitarian crisis, instability in a region join which includes the oil-exporting superpower Saudi Arabia and one of the busiest trccbansport routes.
Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter in the world, increasing fears that instability in neighboring can be transformed into a major threat to the kingdom by allowing Al Qaeda to get more heavily foothold in Yemen.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Sudam in Sanaa and Aden Mohammed in Mokhashaf; Written by Jason Benham and Firouz Sedarat, editing by Tim Pearce and Spanish Clare Fallon)
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