Yemeni forces clash with militants

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

A military official said the fighting took place overnight outside the city of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.

He said there was intensive army artillery shelling of several areas around Zinjibar and that seven wounded soldiers were flown by a helicopter to a hospital in the capital Sanaa.

Al Qaida-linked militants have overrun swathes of territory in Abyan, taking advantage of a security vacuum that has developed as a result of Yemen’s ongoing political unrest.