US drones bomb al-Qaida posts in S. Yemen

U.S. drones bombed an army base seized by al-Qaida militants in Yemen's southern province of Abyan as well as several hideouts of the terrorist group on Sunday night, killing three militants, witnesses and senior army officers told Xinhua

Three al-Qaida militants were confirmed killed in the air raid, an al-Qaida spokesman told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"At least five missiles hit the posts of the terrorist group stationing at Khanfar Mountain in al-Qaida-held city of Jaar this night," a witness told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

"Thick white smoke is rising from the targeted area, and al-Qaida militants are moving to the mountain to check if there are any casualties," said the witness.

After destroying several ammunition stores seized by al-Qaida militants during battles with the army forces, various hideouts and fortifications of the terrorist group in the mountainous area in Jaar city, Abyan's second largest city, were pounded, with no immediate reports of casualties amongst the insurgents, a local army officer said on condition of anonymity.

"The U.S. drones fired missiles targeting the army outpost, which was overran by the extremists last Sunday. All the heavy weapons inside the base were completely damaged," the officer said.

"Huge explosions rocked the al-Qaida arms caches following the air bombing," he added.

However, the al-Qaida spokesman denied any explosion in their weapon stores.

A source close to the militants said they spotted a U.S. drone and two F-16 warplanes when they fired the missiles. He also said that they watched a U.S. warship faraway in the Gulf of Aden and they believed the jet fighters took off from it.

"We are afraid that the shelling could target the place near the Khanfar Mountain where we kept captive 73 soldiers who were captured last week in battles with the Yemeni government troops," said the source, who talked to Xinhua by phone from the coastal city of Jaar, which was seized by the militants in March 2011.

Meanwhile, a security officer in the southern port city of Aden said that "Yemeni armed forces in nearby coastal town of Dovas, off the Gulf of Aden, are attacking targets of al-Qaida after the terrorist group fired a Katyusha rocket on a camp of the troops."

Earlier in the day, the Yemeni army forces in the southern restive province of Lahj captured five Somali militants suspected of belonging to a Somali-based al-Qaida wing known as al-Shabaab.

The Yemeni Interior Ministry said in a statement posted on its website on Sunday that it had information that 300 armed Somalis had been sent by al-Shabaab insurgents in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to fight alongside the al-Qaida group in Yemen.

More than 48 terrorists were killed during the past few days in U.S. drone attacks and Yemen air force's raids against their strongholds in al-Bayda and Abyan provinces, according to government officials.

However, al-Qaida said in a statement obtained by Xinhua that only 17 of its fighters were killed in al-Bayda and no one was injured. It also said that it lost nobody in the air raid in Abyan two days ago.

The Yemeni army and security forces have recently been attacked by the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). After fierce battles last week in the flashpoint province of Abyan, nearly 200 soldiers were killed and 73 others were held captive by the militants.

The AQAP, entrenching itself mainly in Yemen's southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, is on the terrorist list of the United States, which considers it as an increasing threat to its national security.