YEMEN: 64 KILLED IN CLASHES WITH AL-QAEDA

YEMEN: 64 KILLED IN CLASHES

WITH AL-QAEDA

An al-Qaeda attack on a Yemeni army post in the south set off clashes that left 64 people dead today and prompted local civilians to take up arms alongside the military to beat back the militants, said army officials and residents. The dawn attack is the latest in a series of bloody battles in recent months that mark an escalation in al-Qaeda's efforts to expand its control around a swath of land it seized last year. The group took advantage of the country's political
turmoil to overrun cities and towns in southern Yemen.The militant movement appears to be on the offencive, assaulting and sometimes overrunning army positions, although
it also suffers reverses.

The officials said this latest assault fell on an outpost in the town of Lawder in Abyan province, some 155 miles southeast of the capital of Sanaa. Residents and military officials said 40 militants were killed in the clashes. Additionally, 18 soldiers, including a
colonel, were killed battling the militants, officials said. Six civilians allied with the army were also reported killed. Yemen's military in the south, poorly equipped and low on morale after a series of defeats, has not been able to fight the group and its supporters alone. In cities like Lawder, residents have become fed up with the government's inability
to protect them and, in a country where tribes posses weapons, have taken up arms to protect themselves.The military said it used artillery to pound al-Qaeda from a distance, but local civilians appear to have done much of the close-in fighting.

                                                            Prof. John Kurakar