SANA'A: According to official reports from Yemen's defense ministry, the country's armed forces are making decisive advances against al-Qaeda in the southern province of Abyan, having managed to regain strategic positions. Mount Yasouf near Lawder was retaken from the Islamists earlier today by the People's Committee, a group of local tribal fighters in league with the government while soldiers advanced towards Jaar, aided by warplanes. Although the casualties were many, according to preliminary report, 12 al-Qaeda fighters and civilians in Lawder alone, the government was keen to announce the move as a brilliant victory against terrorism. With 25,000 troops now stationed in Abyan, President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi reiterated his willingness to eradicate al-Qaeda from Yemen, “crushing all resistance”. After four days of intense fighting, both on land and from the air, the armed forces are believed to be carving their way through Zinjibar, the regional capital of Abyan which since 2011 was under control of the Islamists, having been declared an Islamic Caliphate. Moreover, local sources in Aden, a southern sea-port believed to be crawling with undercover al-Qaeda agents, said to local news sites that foreign warships had been spotted off the coast of Aden, in what they believed to be an attempt by western nations to get a military foothold in Yemen. The allegations could not however be independently verified.
