SANA'A: Military sources based in the southern province of Abyan told Bikyamasr.com that the armed forces backed by local tribesmen and United States warplanes were making “real progress” against al-Qaeda militants. After four days of an intense multi-front battle, with American and Yemeni warplanes pounding the Islamists from the air, foreign warships situated off the coast of Aden sending cruise missiles onto al-Qaeda' strongholds in Abyan and 25,000 troops on the ground, the defense ministry said it was confident victory was within reach. Several weeks ago, President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi publicly vowed to put an end to al-Qaeda's reign of terror in Yemen, promising that he would use whatever force necessary to drive the terror fighters away from the country and return the seized towns back to the Republic. Cornered and vulnerable, military officers told Bikyamasr.com that many al-Qaeda's leaders had perished in the fierce attacks, making the group more vulnerable than ever. On Wednesday, Yemeni airstrikes hit a farm in Moudia, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the town of Lawder in Abyan, where al-Qaida fighters were holed up, killing at least 16 militants including top local commander Samir al-Fathani, officials said. However, if al-Qaeda is losing its people so are many innocent families in the southern province of Abyan, as this grand scale attack against terror does not wait around to identify its target before obliterating entire villages. “We are extremely concerned about the increasing number of casualties and about allegations of airstrikes in civilian locations,” said Eric Marclay, the head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen. Hundreds of people were seen fleeing the outskirts of Jaar, a town under the control of al-Qaeda which has been under constant attack for the past days, in a bid to escape the bombing. Abdullah who spoke by phone said he had managed to reach Aden where his brother was staying. He recalled the sheer terror of the past nights, saying that the bombing was relentless. “All through the night they attacked, the West, the Americans, we don't know. My kids and my wife were terrified. We had to live otherwise we would all have buried under the rubbles of our village.” Shaken, Abdullah said his village had been ravaged by war, with houses lying in ruins and lives destroyed. Rights groups are now calling for the armed forces and the west to maintain an open humanitarian corridor and ensure that no harm comes to civilians.
