Two military fighters jets screamed through the sky over the Mahfad town in Abyan, dropping bombs and rockets that shelled several hideouts of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, the local army officer said on condition of anonymity.
"Initial reports that we are getting from military intelligence agents in the bombing area show that several arms caches and hideouts of al-Qaida were completely shelled," the army officer said.
No casualties have been reported so far in Thursday's air bombing, according to the army officer.
Media sources and members of the al-Qaida group could not be reached for comment.
A local resident told Xinhua anonymously that unknown warplanes dropped bombs on al-Qaida-held locations in the Mahfad town, causing a powerful blast that rocked the ground and sent up a huge gray cloud of smoke in the sky.
Meanwhile, two security personnel were injured due to a remote- controlled blast targeting a military patrol in neighboring southern province of Lahj, a security official said.
A string of high-level assassinations and suicide bombings struck Yemen's southern regions over the past two months, showing that al-Qaida militants have retained the capacity to attack despite that Yemen's military operations claimed victory in routing them out of their strongholds in the south.
On June 20, Yemen's military officials announced the seizing of al-Qaida's last bastion in the country's troubled south following the army's offensive backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
However, local military and anti-terrorism experts said that the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch is still a major threat to the impoverished Arab country despite being driven out from its main southern bastions by U.S.-backed military assault.
from XINHUA
2012-09-14 03:47:24
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