Qaeda suspects kill four Yemeni soldiers in clashes

Four Yemeni soldiers were killed and 15 wounded on Tuesday as troops advanced on a southern city held by suspected Al-Qaeda militants, a military official said.

The fierce fighting erupted early Tuesday morning on the outskirts of Zinjibar, the capital of restive Abyan province.

The military official, who requested anonymity, said the army was within a kilometre (less than a mile) from the city's outskirts.

A medical official at a military hospital in Aden confirmed the casualty toll while the military official said three colonels were among the wounded.

A local official said that six militants were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting.

An intelligence official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, later confirmed to AFP that Al-Qaeda operatives were withdrawing from Zinjibar and two neighbouring towns.

The official said the militants were fleeing to Shabwa province, another Al-Qaeda stronghold, which neighbours Abyan to the east, confirming earlier reports from Zinjibar residents that the gunmen were on the run.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda aired a documentary film in the Shabwa town of Rawda on the escape of 62 militants from a Yemeni jail, residents told AFP.

The film, which was aired on Monday night, lasted 110 minutes and documented the escape of Al-Qaeda operatives from the central jail in Al-Mukalla, capital of the southeastern province of Hadramawt last June.

The movie was shown to an audience of 200 people on a large screen in the town's central market.

Tuesday's clashes came just a day after the Yemeni air force struck a mosque and a hospital in the Abyan town of Jaar, killing at least seven civilians and an unknown number of Al-Qaeda operatives.

In May, a group known as the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic Law), believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda, seized control of Zinjibar and besieged the base of the 25th Mechanised Brigade on the outskirts of the town.

Military officials said earlier that advancing troops were able to relieve the besieged brigade.

Since anti-government protests swept Yemen in late January, militants have taken advantage of the weakening of central authority to set up base in several southern provinces as well as Maarib province in the east.

The United Nations and Western governments have expressed growing concern about the role Al-Qaeda might play in Yemen if the regime of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh collapses and a power vacuum ensues.

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