7 Qaida Militants Killed in S. Yemen Offensive, Including AQAP Chief

Yemeni troops backed by aircraft killed seven suspected al-Qaida militants, including a local leader, as they pressed a ground offensive in the south, the defense ministry and the army said Thursday.

The assault that began overnight focused on the Shabwa province towns of Maifaa and Azzan, the ministry's 26sep.net news website said.

Three vehicles were destroyed and six suspected militants traveling in them killed, it added.

Residents of the two towns said fierce fighting was continuing on Thursday.

In neighboring Abyan province, troops Thursday killed a local leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), state news agency Saba reported, identifying him as Abu Muslim al-Uzbeki. 

The jihadist "was probably killed in clashes that erupted when army forces advanced into al-Mahfad," an army officer told Agence France Presse, referring to an al-Qaida stronghold in Abyan.

A security official said Uzbeki traveled in 2011 from Uzbekistan to Yemen, where he was named an AQAP leader in Abyan.

The army launched a major offensive on Tuesday aimed at clearing the jihadists from their remaining strongholds in villages and smaller towns in Shabwa and Abyan.

The operation began with a setback for the army when a convoy fell into an al-Qaida ambush in which 15 soldiers were killed and 15 more taken prisoner, three of whom were later executed.

So far, a total of 21 soldiers and 22 suspected militants have been reported killed in the ground offensive, which followed intense U.S. and Yemeni air strikes last week.

AQAP -- a merger of the network's Yemeni and Saudi branches -- is regarded by Washington as its most dangerous franchise and has been subjected to an intensifying drone war this year. 

The jihadists took advantage of a 2011 uprising that forced veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of southern and eastern Yemen.

The army recaptured several major towns in 2012 but has struggled to reassert control in rural areas, despite backing from militia recruited among the local tribes.