40 soldiers held hostage by al-Qaida in southern Yemen

ADEN, Yemen, March 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 40 soldiers of the Yemeni army forces were held hostage by al-Qaida militants after it overran an army post in the war-torn southern province of Abyan on Sunday, a military official said.

After fierce fighting with the government troops, al-Qaida militants managed to take control of an army post of the 115th Armored Army Brigade positioned in the al-Kud area, south of Abyan 's provincial capital Zinjibar, capturing 40 soldiers along with their heavy weapons, tanks and armored vehicles, the local military official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In the fighting west and around the entrances of Zinjibar, at least 15 al-Qaida militants were killed and dozens of others injured, the official said.

"Two local al-Qaida leaders were killed," he added.

An army soldier said "up to 40 soldiers went missing after the battle... we lost communications with them."

Yemen's military sent tanks and other reinforcement from the neighboring port city of Aden to Abyan, trying to regain the army post seized by al-Qaida operatives, witnesses told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, an army officer involved in the battles said anonymously that hours after many soldiers were taken captive by the terrorists, warplanes bombed al-Qaida militants, who quickly fled the army post.

"Army troops managed to regain control of the outpost," he said, adding that "al-Qaida militants retreated from the whole region for fear of intensified air raids."

A local medic at the Bashuib military hospital in Aden told Xinhua that "more than 36 army soldiers wounded in the fighting with al-Qaida were brought for treatment this afternoon."

Earlier in the day, twin suicide bombing attacks targeted two military bases of the Yemeni army forces in the suburbs of Zinjibar, killing at least eight soldiers and injuring dozens of others, an army official told Xinhua.

Taking advantage of the one-year-long anti-government protests, resurgent AQAP, known locally as Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), has taken control of several cities across the restive southern provinces.

The Yemeni government forces have been battling AQAP militants in the south, leaving hundreds of people killed and thousands displaced.

AQAP, entrenching itself mainly in Yemen's southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, is on the terrorist list of the United States.

Newly-elected Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has vowed to strengthen the security and intelligence cooperation with the United States in combating AQAP, which has threatened the daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.