Yemeni president vows to fight al-Qaida

Yemen's new President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi vowed to drive out al-Qaida as the death toll from the militant attack in his home province of Abyan mounted. "We are unwaveringly resolved to keep the fight against al-Qaida and we will chase them to every cache until they are eradicated, no matter what the cost is going to be," Hadi said Monday, the Yemen Post reported. His comments came a day after an ambush by militants, linked to a branch of al-Qaida, on a military post in Abyan province in southern Yemen, killed dozens. The New York Times, quoting government spokesman Mohammed Albasha, reported at least 90 soldiers died in the attack on the military base on a road between Aden and Zinjibar, capital of Abyan, which has been the scene of much fighting between militants and security forces for months. The latest violence against the Yemeni armed forces was the deadliest in the past year, the Times reported. The Yemen Post said 35 people were also wounded in the attack and dozens more soldiers were taken prisoners and the attackers also took a large amount of weapons. Hadi said terrorists have taken advantage of the current crisis in the country and militants from other countries had infiltrated into Yemen with the aim of setting up their Islamic Emirate. Hadi took over as president last month. Until his election, the country had been under the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh for about three decades. Saleh stepped down under an agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council to end months of protests and violence against his rule. Yemen's crisis has allowed it to become the new haven for al-Qaida-linked militants and they remain the biggest threat of the new Hadi government. Albasha told the Times in an e-mail that top military commanders had met in the capital, Sanaa, to make plans for a retaliatory attack on the militants in their Abyan province stronghold, where they call themselves Ansar al-Sharia, or supporters of Islamic law. Several divisions of the Yemeni armed forces have been trained by the United States to fight terrorism in their country.