Fifteen al-Qaida-linked militants have been killed in a missile strike on their training camp in southern Yemen, according to military officials.

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.

Yemeni government forces regained control of a strategic gateway in the south today after intense three-day shelling of al Qaida hideouts in the area that left 43 militants dead, military and medical officials said.

Al Qaida militants overran an army base in southern Yemen today, capturing heavy weapons and turning them on soldiers in intense clashes that left 61 dead, a military official said.

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

YEMENI air force jets hit an al-Qaeda stronghold town in the south of the country, killing seven civilians when they mistakenly struck the wrong mosque, a local official said yesterday.

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.

SYRIAN tanks surrounded a town near the border with Iraq’s Sunni heartland yesterday after tens of thousands, emboldened by defections among security forces, took to the streets there denouncing President Bashar al-Assad, residents said.

YEMEN’S acting leader has put forward a new plan to end the country’s political stalemate, which would keep President Ali Abdullah Saleh in power longer than previously outlined.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was more badly injured than first thought in a blast at his compound last week.

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.

Yemen’s president, clinging to power despite weeks of protests, has scrapped his offer to step down by the end of the year.

ISLAMIC militants seized control of a weapons factory, a strategic mountain and a nearby town in the southern Yemen province of Abyan as a political stalemate in the capital causes security to unravel around the country.

Islamic militants seized control of a weapons factory, a strategic mountain and a nearby town in the southern Yemen province of Abyan today as a political stalemate in the capital causes security to unravel around the country.

Amnesty International said today it has evidence that points to US involvement in air strikes on suspected al-Qaida hideouts in Yemen late last year, and criticised Washington for allegedly using cluster munitions and not taking precautions to avoid civilian casualties.