Al-Qaida kills over 40 soldiers, seizes military posts in Yemen

Sanaa, May 7 (Xinhua-ANI): More than 40 Yemeni soldiers were killed on Monday in fierce battle with al-Qaida militants in the southern province of Abyan, a security official said.

"Al-Qaida seized all weapons of three battalions of 115th Infantry Brigade in the outskirts of Abyan's provincial capital city Zinjibar and in the nearby coastal town of Dovas after it killed more than 40 soldiers and injuring dozens of others," the official in the nearby port city of Aden told Xinhua.

"A large numbers of soldiers were taken hostages by al-Qaida militants," he said on condition of anonymity.

The attack came hours after a U.S. drone killed Fahd al-Quso, the globally wanted leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula ( AQAP), who was jailed in Yemen in 2002 for involvement in the USS Cole bombing in the port of Aden, in which 17 American sailors were killed.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi vowed to launch an all- out war against the AQAP two days ago.

"Our battle with al-Qaida has not started yet and will not be finished until all terrorists are wiped out of the country and the displaced people return to their homes safely," Hadi said Saturday in his first public speech since his inauguration in February.

Fiece fighting has been seen in the same area between the government troops and al-Qaida militants in the past two months, when the terrorist group captured 73 soldiers who were set free following a tribal mediation.

Taking advantage of Yemen's one-year unrest, the AQAP has seized several cities in the country's southern and eastern provinces as deadly protests weakened control of the central government in remote regions. (Xinhua-ANI)