Agencies/Sanaa
At least 25 soldiers have been killed in a friendly fire incident and clashes with militants linked to Al Qaeda in south Yemen, security officials said yesterday. The officials said some of the soldiers were killed in a strike by the Yemeni air force that mistakenly hit a school in the southern town of Zinjibar. State television, however, cited an unnamed military official denying that soldiers were killed in a friendly fire incident. Hundreds of militants from the Al Qaeda-linked Partisans of Shariah group overran Zinjibar in May, and it has been the scene of bitter fighting. One military official said on condition of anonymity said that the air strike on the school killed a large number of soldiers. “Al Qaeda militants then attacked the school after the air strike and killed even more soldiers,” he said, adding that at least 25 had been killed at the school. Officials at the military hospital in the nearby port city of Aden said they were unable to confirm the deaths as their ambulances could not reach the location because of “intense fighting” between soldiers and militants. Zinjibar, the capital of the troubled southern Abyan province, and at least three other towns in the area were overrun by militants in May. Since then, troops have been battling to take back control of the region. Saturday’s fighting came a day after one of Al Qaeda’s top leaders in the country, US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in an apparent US drone strike. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken advantage of nearly nine months of sweeping unrest against President Ali Abdullah Saleh to bolster its presence in the restive south and east Yemen, launching regular attacks. In other unrest, a seven-year-old girl was killed when a rocket struck near a school in Al Akama neighbourhood, in the centre of Sanaa, witnesses said. The source of the bomb was not clear, but clashes had erupted in north Sanaa between troops from the First Armoured Division, led by defected General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, and forces from the Central Security that is loyal to Saleh. Eight people were wounded in the gun battle which took place in a busy market area at a junction between Hail Street and Al Zubairi Street, witnesses and medics said. Protests have raged since January in the impoverished country demanding the ouster of Saleh who has been in office since 1978. International powers fear growing lawlessness might embolden Al Qaeda’s local wing and imperil shipping routes via the Red Sea. Saleh’s opponents accuse him of exaggerating the threat of Al Qaeda and even encouraging militancy to scare Saudi Arabia and the US into backing him. Saleh had been in Saudi Arabia since June recovering from an attempt on his life. His surprise comeback coincided with a burst of bloodshed in Sanaa when a months-old uneasy stalemate gave way to a military showdown between pro- and anti-Saleh forces. Violence has been sporadic since Saleh’s return, but many Yemenis and analysts fear the country may eventually slide into an even deadlier confrontation, if not civil war.