Clashes between the army and Al-Qaeda militants for the control of Yemen’s southern province of Abyan have killed 10 jihadists and a soldier over the weekend, local and military sources said on Sunday. Four militants were killed in fighting early Sunday when the jihadists using machineguns clashed with the army in the southern district of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan, a military official said. The official from the 25th Mechanised Brigade fighting in the city had told AFP earlier that two other jihadists were killed late Saturday in Zinjibar’s southern district, while an Al-Qaeda sniper had shot dead a soldier there. He said that “the army is controlling most of Zinjibar’s outskirts”, referring to the northern, eastern, and southern areas. “But we have not yet taken over central Zinjibar,” he said. He said the army is still trying to control Zinjibar’s remaining northwestern entrances to cut it off from Jaar, to its north, and Shaqra, 35 kilometres (22 miles) to its east. Both are under the control of militants since June 2011. On Sunday, another military official on the ground said that troops and militiamen fighting alongside the army from the town of Loder have advanced towards Shaqra to “tighten the noose around Al-Qaeda militants from all sides.”
