Three al-Qaida militants were killed in a suspected US drone strike in southern Yemen, Yemeni security officials said today, the fourth such attack this week.

A suspected US drone strike has killed five people in two cars in which al Qaida-linked militants were travelling in southern Yemen.

A gunman opened fire on worshippers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in southern Yemen, killing nine.

The army chief leading the fight against al Qaida militants in southern Yemen has been killed by a suicide bomber, security officials said today.

Yemen's army has regained control of one of al Qaida's key strongholds in the south which the militant group has held for more than a year, the state-run news agency said today.

Yemeni leaders led a sombre ceremony today to mark the country’s national day, scaling back celebrations a day after a suicide bombing killed nearly 100 soldiers during a rehearsal for a military parade.

The latest fighting to uproot al Qaida from southern Yemen has killed 13 militants, as well as four soldiers and two militiamen fighting alongside the army, military officials said.

Forty-two people have been killed in heavy clashes between the army and al-Qaida-linked militants in the country’s south.

An airstrike killed a top al Qaida leader on the FBI’s most wanted list for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship, Yemeni officials said.

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

Yemeni government troops have killed more than 100 al Qaida fighters in the past two days in an offensive against militant hideouts in the country’s south, the interior ministry 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.

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.

Yemen’s defence minister escaped unscathed today after a suicide attacker driving an explosives-laden car blew himself up next to his convoy, security officials and witnesses said.

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Yemen have stormed the main university in the capital Sanaa, preventing the first day of classes from beginning and tearing down pictures of the long-time leader whose ousting they seek.

Residents of a town in southern Yemen overrun by radical Islamists say government shelling has killed more than 20 militants in the past two days.

Sanaa: A fire on an oil tanker caused by a rocket-propelled grenade attack by pirates off southern Yemen damaged the ship’s engine room, according to the UK P&I Club, one of the vessel’s insurers.

Tens of thousands of protesters have poured into the streets of a city in southern Yemen in ongoing protests against long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Witnesses say thousands of people in southern Yemen took to the streets to demand that their president step down, and that police attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, batons and bullets.

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.

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.

Police have stormed a protest camp in southern Yemen where thousands are calling for the ousting of the country’s long-time president, witnesses and a security official said today.

Government supporters wielding knives and handguns attacked protesters in southern Yemen today, leaving one dead.

At least eight people were killed today when a three-storey building collapsed after explosives stored in its basement went off, security officials in southern Yemen said.

Tribesmen kidnapped a German aid worker and her parents in southern Yemen earlier today and are holding them hostage, demanding the government release imprisoned clan members, Yemeni officials said.

At least 49 people were killed by floods sweeping through southern Yemen after a massive tropical storm slammed into the impoverished country, a senior police official said today.

Mourners packed the home of a Yemeni who died at the American prison in Guantanamo Bay as his family dismissed US claims that he committed suicide and accused prison authorities of murdering him.

Two Muslim militants accused of killed three American Christian missionaries and a Yemeni politician had also planned attacks on journalists and other foreigners, security officials said today.

Yemeni investigators today said they strongly suspect a man who gunned down four American missionaries had links to the al-Qaida terror network.

The man suspected of killing three American missionaries and wounding another in southern Yemen is believed to have ties to a cell plotting attacks on foreigners and secular-minded politicians, officials say.