Sana'a: Reports of indiscriminate shelling in the southern parts of the country have emerged, with two civilians killed and another three wounded, local government and medical officials have said.
Troops have been accused of firing on the vehicles of residents fleeing one village, where security forces are laying siege to Al Qaida militants, and the city of Lawder. Thousands of people have been reported as having fled the region.
Government forces have moved into the village of Hawta with tanks and armoured vehicles, forcing 90 per cent of its residents to flee.
Hawta is Yemen's mountainous Shabwa province, one of the areas where Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken root over the past year and a half, beyond the reach of a weak central government that has little control outside the capital.
The United States is deeply concerned about the threat from Yemen's Al Qaida branch. The group claimed responsibility for the December attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, linking the plot to Yemen's cooperation with the US military in strikes on Al Qaida targets.
The United States has shared intelligence and provided financial aid and training to Yemeni forces, generating backlash among Yemenis.
Around 120 Al Qaida militants are believed to be taking refuge in Hawta, the police chief said.
Three militants were killed and four were wounded in the fighting, said the provincial governor, Ali Hassan Al Ahmadi. One anti-terrorism officer was injured, he said.
Latest abduction
For months, AQAP has hammered Yemen's security forces in attacks on checkpoints and other security outposts. The group said in an internet statement on Monday that it abducted a senior security official and demanded the release of two of its imprisoned members within 48 hours.
Brigadier-General Ali Hussam disappeared on August 26. The group did not say what it would do if its demand was not met.
Yemen's government has had trouble gaining control of areas in the south that are under the control of powerful tribes, some sympathetic to Al Qaida and other militants in the area.
Yemen is the poorest Arab nation and is beset by other major internal security threats — an on-and-off rebellion on the north and a separate secessionist movement in the south.
