Yemen Official: Qaida Militant Killed Planting Bomb

An al-Qaida militant was killed Thursday when a roadside bomb he was trying to plant at a central market in the southern town of Loder exploded, a security official told Agence France Presse.

Witnesses in the town where a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber killed 12 pro-government militiamen earlier this week said the militant's body was torn to pieces in the blast.

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has rejected efforts by clerics and tribal chiefs to broker a truce between the government and al-Qaida, insisting that the militants must lay down their arms.

The jihadists were driven out of most cities in Abyan province, including Loder, last June in an offensive by troops backed by militia, but Yemeni forces continue to hunt them in the rugged south and east, aided by U.S. drone attacks.

The militants took advantage of a decline in central government control during a 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of territory across the south, including most of Abyan province, which they controlled for a year.