Yemen said its army killed 21 al Qaeda members on Saturday in a southern province where the main city has been seized by militants during the chaos of the country’s bloody political crisis.
At least Nine Yemeni soldiers were also killed in the fighting in Abyan province, whose capital Zinjibar fell to the militants last month, triggering fighting that sent many of its population fleeing.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s opponents have accused him of handing over Zinjibar to militants to reinforce his threat that the end of his three-decade rule, as demanded by protesters, would amount to ceding the region to al Qaeda militants.
The leader has not appeared in public since an attack on his palace eight days ago which left him with injuries that forced him to undergo surgery in Saudi Arabia, although Yemen’s ambassador to Britain said on Saturday he was recovering and in a “stable condition”.
