Yemen army 'retakes Jaar after Qaeda pull-out'
Baku, June 12 (AZERTAC). Yemeni troops backed by armoured vehicles took control of the southern town of Jaar on Tuesday after Al-Qaeda gunmen who overran it a year ago withdrew during the night, officials and witnesses said.
The taking of the town marks the first major victory of an all-out military offensive launched a month ago against the jihadists, who have controlled most of the southern province of Abyan for more than year.
"With the cooperation of the citizens of Abyan...the heroes of the armed forces and the popular resistance committees have taken full control of the city of Jaar," the ministry of defence said, quoting Yemen's southern military commander, Salem Ali Qoton."Al-Qaeda has suffered heavy losses...and dozens of militants have fled" the city, said Qoton, adding that the army was able to reopen the main road linking Abyan province with the southern port city of Aden.
As news of Al-Qaeda's ouster spread, dozens of Jaar residents took to the streets celebrating and firing guns into the air, witnesses said.
Armoured vehicles moved into the centre of Jaar on Tuesday morning, just hours after Al-Qaeda militants withdrew towards the nearby town of Shuqra, when "fighting with the army became fiercer," one resident told AFP.
Locals said they saw vehicles carrying militants, weapons and furniture heading east towards Shuqra, where many of the Al-Qaeda leadership are believed to be holed up.
The militants distributed pamphlets in the town apologising to residents for dragging Jaar into a conflict with the army and for the damage caused by the fighting, according to locals.
Yemeni forces launched an offensive on May 12 aimed at reclaiming towns and cities lost to Al-Qaeda over the past year, including Abyan's capital Zinjibar.
Jaar is the first of three major Abyan towns to be taken from Al-Qaeda control. The army is still fighting to recapture Zinjibar, which fell to militants last May, and Shuqra.
Western diplomats have said that US experts are assisting the Yemeni army in their battle to fight Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the name given to the network's Yemen branch which is considered by Washington to be the group's deadliest and most active branch.
The US has also escalated drone strikes against Al-Qaeda militants hiding in Yemen's mostly lawless southern and eastern provinces, killing several dozen of them in recent weeks.
In May, just days before the launch of the offensive, a drone strike killed Al-Qaeda leader Fahd al-Quso who was wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
Since the offensive began, 485 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally combined from different sources. This includes 368 Al-Qaeda militants, 72 soldiers, 26 local armed men and 19 civilians.
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