SANAA, Yemen - An al-Qaida attack Monday on a Yemeni army post in the south set off clashes that left 44 people dead and prompted local civilians to take up arms alongside the military to beat back the militants, said army officials and residents.
The dawn attack demonstrates how al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has exploited the political and security turmoil after the country's yearlong uprising, managing to take control of large swaths of land in the south and staging increasingly bold attacks on the military.
The officials said the militants attacked an army position in the town of Lawder in Abyan province, where al-Qaida fighters are active. The town is 155 miles southeast of the capital, Sanaa.
Residents and military officials said 24 militants were killed in the clashes. Additionally, 14 soldiers, including a colonel, were killed battling the militants Monday, officials said.
People are also reading…
Jihad Hafeez, a member of a local anti-al-Qaida group in Lawder, said six of his men were killed and eight wounded as they tried to push the militants out of their city. The group is comprised of civilians, mainly from anti-al-Qaida tribes, who oppose the group.
Hafeez said locals have set up checkpoints in and around Lawder to keep the militants out. He said they were able to push al-Qaida fighters out of the city by the afternoon.
Al-Qaida was once present in Lawder, but in July residents drove them out. A few months later, al-Qaida was blamed for planting a roadside bomb that killed two civilians there, and, as Monday's attack demonstrates, they continue to try to regain their foothold.
For the militants, Lawder is a strategic city. It lies along a major highway that links Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar, an al-Qaida stronghold, to the provinces of Hadramawt, Bayda and Shabwa, where the group is active.
A member of one of the committees, Abdullah Amer, said fighting raged for hours before the militants were forced to retreat.
The army officials said a nearby army brigade sent reinforcements to back up the soldiers during the firefight.
Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the movement's most dangerous offshoots.
Yemen's military in the south, poorly equipped and low on morale after a series of bloody al-Qaida attacks, 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 possess weapons, have taken up arms to protect themselves.
Elsewhere in the south, the U.S. has also joined the fight by carrying out drone strikes targeting the al-Qaida's leaders.
