Al-Qaida-linked militants staged a dawn attack on an army post in south Yemen today, setting off clashes which left 23 dead on both sides, Yemeni army officials said.

The death toll among Yemeni government troops attacked by al-Qaida militants at the weekend has risen to 185, military officials said today.

Al-Qaida militants have seized full control of a town south of the Yemeni capital, over-running army positions, storming the local prison and freeing its inmates.

At least 2,000 displaced Yemenis have returned home to a restive area in the country’s south that has been under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants for more than seven months.

Clashes and artillery shelling in the south of Yemen has killed 16 al-Qaida-linked militants and four soldiers.

A Yemen government warplane has mistakenly bombed an army position in the country’s south, killing at least 30 soldiers.

NATO warplanes blitzed a string of military targets in Tripoli yesterday, an official said, as embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi blamed a “colonial plot” for the conflict engulfing his country.

A senior leader of Yemen’s al-Qaida branch has been killed in fighting in the nearly lawless south of the country, the Defence Ministry said.

Yemeni soldiers battled Islamic militants today in an attempt to drive them from several southern towns under the control of hundreds of the fighters. The clashes killed 30 people on both sides, officials said.

Yemen’s chaos deepened when munitions factory looters set off an accidental explosion that killed at least 78 in an area seized by Islamist militants exploiting the president’s rapidly dwindling power.

A POWERFUL blast at a factory making explosives and weapons in southern Yemen killed at least 78 people after the facility was briefly taken over by Islamic militants and then looted by residents of the area, officials said.

Al-Qaida fighters have killed 13 soldiers escorting water tankers in south Yemen.