Local Editor
Dozens of al-Qaeda militants captured the town of Azzan in Yemen’s Shabwa province on Feb. 1, residents said, exploiting a security vacuum in the country’s south as a civil war rages.
Azzan is a major commercial hub of about 70,000 people in an arid and mountainous region and was controlled by al-Qaeda for around a year until the group was ejected in 2012 by an alliance of tribesmen and armed residents loyal to Yemen’s since ousted central government.
"Dozens of al Qaeda gunmen arrived in the early hours of the morning and set up checkpoints at the entrances to the town and in its streets. They planted their black flag on government buildings," one resident who declined to be named told Reuters by telephone.
"They faced no resistance or clashes," the resident said, adding that tribal militia forces quit the area as it was being taken over.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] has expanded during Yemen’s civil war, and also controls the major port of Mukalla in a neighboring province.
It has made its advances in Yemen as the Saudi-led coalition forces, which back the ousted Hadi-government, have repeatedly attacked the country.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population announced that a total of 7,006 people had been killed from March 2015 until Jan. 24, according to Cihan News Agency, citing the Yemeni official news agency Saba News.
The ministry said that a total of 16,509 people had been wounded in the same time period.
Some 1,368 of the dead were children, according to the ministry, while some 1,159 were women.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
