Suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed 18 Yemeni soldiers in separate ambushes yesterday as the army launched a ground offensive against their remaining strongholds in the south, medical and security sources said.
Twelve militants were also killed when the ambush in Shabwa province sparked a firefight, tribal sources said.
Ten soldiers were also wounded and 15 captured, medics and an officer said
Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed has travelled to the south to oversee the offensive, which “will not stop until these areas are purged of Al-Qaeda militants,” an official said.
