U.S. Drones, Yemen Army Kill 9 Qaida Suspects

Nine suspected al-Qaida militants have been killed in an artillery attack by the Yemeni army backed by U.S. drone strikes on their strongholds in the country's south, a local official told Agence France Presse Monday.

Three extremists were killed when U.S. drones fired missiles late on Sunday targeting their weapons hideouts in Jabal Khanfar, a hill overlooking the Abyan town of Jaar, which is controlled by al-Qaida militants, the official said.

A large amount of weapons seized by the militants in an attack against the army that left 185 soldiers earlier this month, were destroyed in the shelling, said the official who spoke to AFP by telephone from Jaar.

Six other militants were killed when the army bombed one of their hideouts in Makhzan, southeast of Jaar, the official said, asking not to be named.

Witnesses and officials said on Sunday that six U.S. drone missiles had targeted the suspected weapons hideouts in Jabal Khanfar.

Witnesses reported seeing columns of smoke billowing into the sky from the targeted locations and said that government buildings, now controlled by al-Qaida fighters, had been damaged.

Al-Qaida extremists took over Zinjibar, Abyan's provincial capital, in May, and then overran several nearby towns across the south, including Jaar.

Air strikes by Yemeni and U.S. planes on Friday and Saturday killed at least 33 suspected al-Qaida militants in Abyan and al-Bayda provinces, south of the capital, residents and local officials said.

Meanwhile in the main southern city of Aden, suspected al-Qaida gunmen attacked a van transporting money to the Cooperative & Agricultural Credit Bank seizing 75 million rials (347,000 dollars), a police spokeswoman told AFP.

She accused al-Qaida militants of the robbery, adding that the extremists frequently carry out such attacks in an attempt to finance their operations.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of slain al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the jihadist network took advantage of a protracted anti-government uprising last year to strengthen their presence across the south and east.

Washington has long made the country a major focus of its "war on terror.”