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| Arabia |
| Al-Qaeda rebels kill 13 soldiers in Yemen |
| 2011-01-08 |
| [Arab News] Yemeni official says Al-Qaeda gunnies have killed 13 soldiers who were escorting water tankers in the country's south. The Deputy Governor of Abyan province, Salih Al-Shamsi, says Al-Qaeda gunnies ambushed the military patrol Friday in Lawder in Abyan. He said the attackers decamped and army units were chasing them in the area. Lawder was the scene of heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting... between Yemen's military and Al-Qaeda elements this fall after a series of attacks on security forces in the town and surrounding area. In November, a day after the state kicked off a regional soccer cup, a roadside kaboom in Lawdar killed one soldier and maimed two others riding in a military vehicle. Abyan's capital Zinjibar was hosting the 20th Gulf Cup along with the neighboring coastal province of Aden and the government had put in place heavy security, deploying tens of thousands of troops to prevent any violence. Yemen's government is battling a resurgent Al-Qaeda presence in the country that also drew deep international concern after the terror network's local offshoot grabbed credit for an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner in December, 2009. Yemen, also trying to maintain a shaky truce with rebels in the north, is a focus of Western security concerns after two US-bound parcel bombs were intercepted in Britain and Dubai in October, a plot claimed by Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing. |
| Posted by:Fred |