Al-Qaeda strengthens hold on Southern Yemen

Suspected Al-Qaida militants killed 10 Yemeni soldiers A civilian and two soldiers died in clashes in the southern Yemeni city of Taez where tribesmen have been fighting forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, officials said on Thursday. A tank shell fired from a position of the Republican Guard, an elite unit commanded by Saleh's oldest son Ahmed, struck a bus travelling in the city's central Rawda district, a local official said.
The driver was killed and four passengers wounded.
The official SPA news agency said two soldiers died in "a militia attack by opposition parties" and that five other soldiers and three civilians were wounded during fighting in Taez between the Guards and tribesmen.
Four members of the Republican Guard were killed in similar clashes on Saturday.
Taez, located about 270 kilometres (170 miles) southwest of the capital Sanaa, is a centre of more than five months of protests seeking the ouster of Saleh.
Earlier, a similar attack occurred, when suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed 10 soldiers when they ambushed them on a road in southern Yemen, where the jihadist network has a stronghold, a military official said on Thursday.
The gunmen opened fire on the vehicle in which the soldiers were travelling on Wednesday north of the city of Loder, in Abyan province, killing them all, the official told AFP.
Only the driver survived, although he was wounded, a medical official said.
A witness said he saw three armed men shoot at the soliders, adding they prevented people from carrying away the soldiers' bodies, only allowing them to take the driver to hospital in Loder.
An official at the hospital confirmed the wounded driver was admitted to the facility, which also later received the bodies of 10 soldiers after the attackers left the scene of the shooting.
Supporters of Al-Qaeda have strengthened their grip on southern Yemen since a wave of popular protests erupted in late January against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Militants of the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) movement seized control of most of the southern city of Zinjibar, near Loder, on May 29, and Yemeni security forces have been engaged in heavy fighting with them since.
The Sanaa government says the militants are allied with Al-Qaeda but the opposition accuses it of playing up a jihadist threat in a desperate attempt to keep Saleh in power.
The embattled Yemeni president has been in neighbouring Saudi Arabia for medical treatment since he was wounded in a June 4 bomb attack on his presidential palace in Sanaa.