Yemen says hundreds killed in three month Al Qaeda siege

At least 230 Yemeni soldiers were killed in fighting with militants At least 230 Yemeni soldiers were killed in fighting with militants linked to Al-Qaeda that led to the lifting of the siege of a brigade imposed three months ago, the defence ministry said on Sunday. Another 50 tribal auxiliaries allied to the government were also killed.
"The southern military region lost more than 230 martyrs in the fighting" to lift the siege of the 25th Mechanised Brigade's base in Zinjibar, state news agency Saba quoted Defence Minister General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed as saying.
Earlier, Saba quoted Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi as telling European diplomats that 90 soldiers at the besieged base and 30 Al-Qaeda leaders had been killed in Zinjibar since militants seized it on May 29.
But the agency said the military casualties announced by Hadi did not include dozens of soldiers from outside the ranks of the 25th Mechanised Brigade who were killed or wounded in the battle to retake Zinjibar and two other towns.
Ahmed, who inspected the Zinjibar base on Sunday morning, a day after the siege was lifted, added that tribal fighters who fought alongside government forces against the militants had lost more than 50 men.
The latest figures take to more than 280 the number of soldiers and tribal fighters killed in the offensive to retake Zinjibar, capital of the restive southern Yemeni province of Abyan.
The government announced on Saturday that the army had "liberated" Zinjibar after its seizure more than three months ago by a group called the Partisans of Sharia, believed to have links to Al-Qaeda.
On Sunday, however, a military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that the military had reclaimed control only of the northern and eastern parts of the city.
Hadi told the meeting of diplomats in the capital Sanaa that more than 600 soldiers from the besieged brigade were wounded during the siege.
Saba also quoted the vice president as saying that 30 local Al-Qaeda leaders were killed in the same time period, making Zinjibar "a graveyard for the Al-Qaeda terrorist network."
In a separate meeting with a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hadi said military operations in Abyan were nearly complete, adding "there are still some pockets of resistance in isolated areas."
A military official on Sunday reported two Yemeni soldiers were killed and four others wounded by a mine explosion.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that the two soldiers died "when a mine planted by Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants exploded in eastern Zinjibar."
Military officials have told AFP that the nearby towns of Jaar and Shakra remain under militant control.
The military official said intermittent clashes continued throughout Zinjibar on Sunday, despite the army's claim that most militants had already fled the city to Jaar.
He said the army was reluctant to enter the city centre because of concerns that the fleeing militants may have planted mines before withdrawing.
Southern Yemen has seen a sharp rise in violence since mass anti-government protests threw into question the entrenched presidency of Ali Abdullah Saleh and weakened the central government.
The violence has displaced more than 100,000 Yemenis in the south in recent months, according to the United Nations.
In addition to Abyan, the southern military command also includes the provinces of Aden, Lahij and Dhaleh.
The United Nations and Western governments have expressed growing concern about the role Al-Qaeda might play in Yemen if Saleh's regime collapses and a power vacuum ensues.
The United States, which had viewed Saleh as a key ally in its "war on terror," after the 9/11 attacks, has warned of the threat posed by Islamist militancy in Yemen.
Washington has repeatedly voiced concern over Yemen's potential to become a new staging ground for Al-Qaeda.
On October 12, 2000, Al-Qaeda targeted the warship USS Cole in Aden, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 38 in a sea-borne suicide attack.
Two years later, a small boat filled with explosives blew a hole in the 500,000-tonne French supertanker Limburg, killing a Bulgarian crewman and wounding 12 others.
Al-Qaeda admitted responsibility for that attack also.