Yemen claims 10 al-Qaeda dead in US raids over S Yemen

Al-Qaeda in Yemen announced the death of four of its members in a US air strike Wednesday evening. The organisation said via the Madad News Agency, the mouthpiece for the organisation in south Yemen,  that four of its mujahedin had been killed on Wednesday in an American air raid on Jaar, which they describe as Emirates of Waqar in Abyan province, southern Yemen. The agency quoted asource from Ansar al-Sharia in Waqar as saying that the attack  bombed a house in which  the four members were living, noting that the shelling constitutes a serious escalation from the "crusaders"   as it targeted a house in a residential area in a way that threatened the lives of Waqar’s inhabitants. “The latest shelling is the eighth of its type waged by a US jet in almost a month on areas in southern Yemen.” according to Madad News. At the same time, local sources in Abyan province confirmed to Arabstoday, the deaths of four  al-Qaeda elements killed in a naval shelling, one of which was the financial officer of the organisation. The Yemeni defence ministry however,  announced the killing of 10 “terrorists” and seriously  injured five others during aerial and artillery shelling carried out by the "heroes of the armed  forces on their dens in Zinjibar, in Abyan." The ministry of defence said via its website that their aerial bombardment destroyed a car containing al-Qaeda members adding that civilian committees are continuing to chase al-Qaeda and its groups in an unprecedented determination to end the aggression. A source from Ansar al-Sharia said in a statement to Madad that the group had commenced on a “burning sky” strategy to target units of Sanaa's army Brigade 111 based in Loder, with heavy artillery. The source said the fighters used  “burning sky” mortars and B10 canons in addition to the DC canons which they recently accumulated from the regime’s forces during earlier confrontations in Abyan. He added that the DC cannons were used only against the regime forces and did not target the civilian committees to avoid killing citizens. The Madad agency said that two Yemeni jets in addition to another US drone flew over Lodar on Thursday afternoon.  It added that the two jets raided an area near Lodar in the afternoon with light injuries reported by two al-Qaeda fighters.