50 soldiers killed in fighting with al-Qaida in Yemen

SANAA - Yemeni officials said the death toll of the army from their battle with al-Qaida militants in the southern province of Abyan on Sunday rose up to 50, while al-Qaida said only two of its fighters were killed.

An official of the interior ministry in the capital Sanaa told Xinhua that 36 bodies of the soldiers have been transported to Basuhaib hospital in the southern port city of Aden and several others were still left at the front line.

The officials said that dozens of the soldiers were wounded during the fighting.

A provincial official in the coastal town of Dovas, where the ongoing battle is fought, told Xinhua by phone that about 50 soldiers have been killed during the fighting with al-Qaida.

On the other hand, a spokesman of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Abyan told Xinhua that only two of their fighters were killed in Sunday's battle.

"Only two al-Qaida fighters were killed and 13 others were wounded, some of them are in critical condition," the spokesman told Xinhua by phone.

"Our information confirmed that our fighters killed over 50 government troops since early Sunday morning until now," he said, adding that "we will release an official statement within one hour to journalists to provide them with further details."

The battles erupted Sunday morning after twin suicide bombing attacks targeted two military bases of the Yemeni army forces in the outskirts of Abyan's provincial capital city of Zinjibar and in nearby coastal town of Dovas.

The ongoing fighting came less than 24 hours after the resurgent al-Qaida wing launched deadly attacks against the government elite Republican Guards in the southeast province of al- Bayda and the Central Security camp in the southern province of Hadramout.

The Yemeni government has given AQAP militants an ultimatum to quit the captured cities in Abyan.

Taking advantage of the one-year-long anti-government protests, the resurgent AQAP, known locally as Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), has taken control of several cities across the restive southern provinces.

The US-backed Yemeni government forces have been battling AQAP militants in the south, leaving hundreds of people killed and thousands displaced.  

Newly-elected Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has vowed to strengthen the security and intelligence cooperation with the United States in combating AQAP, which has threatened the daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.