The number of soldiers killed in a weekend assault by Al-Qaeda militants on an army camp in Yemen’s restive Abyan province has risen to 185, a military official said Tuesday following the discovery of more bodies.
“The toll has risen to 185 soldiers killed” in the Sunday attack on a military camp in Kud, just south of the main city of Zinjibar, the official said. “The bodies of 110 soldiers are in military hospitals while the rest of the bodies, found in the desert, were placed in refrigerated rooms,” in military hospitals, the source said. General Ali Salah, deputy chief of staff for military operations, was appointed to form an inquiry commission to investigate the attack, the source added.
Yemeni military officials reported fierce clashes on Sunday when suspected Al-Qaeda militants tried to overrun an army post in Kud, just south of Zinjibar. The violence then spread to other military positions on the outskirts of the city. At least 25 Al-Qaeda gunmen were killed in the fighting and several others wounded, a local official from the nearby militant stronghold of Jaar told AFP.
He also said at least 56 soldiers were captured by Al-Qaeda, including seven officers and 10 wounded soldiers. The militants, known in Yemen as the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), seized control of Zinjibar and several other towns in Yemen’s mostly lawless south last May as former president Ali Abdullah Saleh faced mass protests. The military official, who was at the scene during Sunday’s attack, said troops from the Kud base were “surprised” to see the militants carrying army issued weapons and using military vehicles. Soldiers who survived the attack accused some army leaders who had served under Saleh of “collaborating” with Al-Qaeda. In Bayda province, bordering Abyan, Al-Qaeda gunmen killed a soldier and wounded two others, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, while the extremists announced they killed three troops. Attacks on security forces have spiralled since President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi pledged a crackdown on the militants in an inauguration speech last month as he replaced Saleh — who had ruled Yemen for 33 years.
A Pentagon spokesman said on Monday the United States was “very concerned” about the latest killings but believed the new government would survive the assault. “We view Yemen as a very important partner on counter-terrorism efforts and we’re also very concerned about the clashes that have taken place there, to include AQAP advances in certain parts in the country,” press secretary George Little told reporters. Saleh, a US ally in its “war on terror”, handed power to Hadi based on a Gulf-brokered deal, which was hailed by world powers as Yemen’s only exit from a year long uprising that has left the country’s economy in tatters amid a deteriorating security situation.
