SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Government forces have killed 30 Islamic militants in Yemen’s troubled southern province of Abyan, the defense ministry said Tuesday, in what appears to be an escalation of a military campaign to retake areas captured by extremists.
Elsewhere in the south, clashes erupted between rebellious tribesmen and army troops near the presidential palace in Yemen’s second-largest city, Taiz. It was not immediately known whether there were casualties from the fighting, but a shell fired by a tank near the palace landed in a nearby residential area, killing four people, including three children.
The violence underscores fears of increasing instability in the Arab world’s most impoverished country days after President Ali Abdullah Saleh left for neighboring Saudi Arabia to seek treatment for wounds he suffered Friday in a rocket attack on his compound in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital.
Warplanes bombed areas around the Abyan town of Zinjibar, which was seized by Islamic militants late last month, overnight, according to witnesses and military officials.
Fighting also occurred on the ground when dozens of militants attacked an army position in Abyan, prompting a gunfight that left nine soldiers and six of the attackers dead, according to the military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information. The army had regained control of the post after hours of fighting.
Also in Abyan, the officials said artillery shelling by government troops killed four suspected militants in Jaar, another area that has fallen under Islamic militant control, on Tuesday. They had no more details.
A brief defense ministry statement said 30 Islamic militants were killed Monday night and Tuesday, but did not provide a breakdown or give more details about the fighting.
An attack on the presidential palace in Taiz on Sunday was blamed on a group recently set up to avenge the killing of anti-regime protesters at the hands of security forces. It was not immediately clear whether the same group was behind Tuesday’s attack.
In a separate incident, Saudi Arabia said its border guards killed a Yemeni gunman who opened fire while trying to cross into Yemen in a jeep at a crossing near Najran, 60 miles (100 kilometers) inland from the Red Sea, early Tuesday. The Saudi statement said two guards were killed. No further details about the gunman were given. Infiltration in both directions along the 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) desert border is common.
Saleh underwent successful surgery in Saudi Arabia on Monday to remove shards of wood from his chest and treat heavy burns on his face and chest from the rocket attack, which killed 11 bodyguards and seriously wounded five other senior officials.
It is not known when the leader of 33 years planned to return to Yemen, but a top official said he would return home within days, a step almost certain to cause more violence.
A return by Saleh would likely spark new, intensified fighting between his forces and opposition tribesmen determined to topple him. Both sides’ fighters are deployed in the streets of the capital, and a cease-fire brokered by Saudi Arabia only a day earlier was already starting to fray, with clashes killing at least six over the past 24 hours.
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