Yemen Battles Qaida for Key Town

Yemeni soldiers and tribesmen were locked in battles with al-Qaida militants trying to take over a strategic town in the country's south, in a third consecutive day of clashes, residents said.

The fighting, which has killed at least 124 people since the Islamists raided an army barracks on Monday, raged on the outskirts of Loder, the Abyan province town that the extremists have been trying to retake.

Residents said that two air strikes by Yemeni forces also targeted the southern entrances of the city.

Loder is located some 150 kilometers northeast of Zinjibar, the Abyan capital which militants of the al-Qaida-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) overran in May last year.

Al-Qaida briefly seized Loder in August 2010 before being driven out by the army.

A tribal source had said the militants wanted to recapture it because of its position between Shabwa, Bayda and Lahij provinces where al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is also active.

Monday's attack had followed a series of air strikes that killed 24 suspected al-Qaida militants in their southern and eastern strongholds.

The United States considers the Yemen-based AQAP to be the most deadly and active branch of the global terror network.