Al-Qaeda fighters bomb Yemen power station

Clashes have been continuing between al-Qaeda-linked fighters and Yemeni army troops supported by local tribal fighters in the city of Lawdar, in the southern Abyan province. Local sources told Arabstoday that fights between the two parties got fiercer on Thursday night, saying that two local fighters were killed in a bomb attack conducted by Ansar al-Sharia fighters --associated to al-Qaeda --on the city's power station. Sources revealed that the offenders had bombed the power station using tanks they had stolen earlier from Yemeni army bases. This attack was followed by a counter-attack carried out by local fighters, who succeeded in seizing a tank after killing its crew, forcing the offenders to retreat back from their positions. Meanwhile, a joint attack by the United States and Yemen's aircraft has targeted some bases of Ansar al-Sharia. The local sources said the air strike left several  dead amongst Ansar al-Sharia fighters, but a specific toll couldn't be reached due to the opacity imposed by the militant organisation. The Yemeni airforce have also bombed a former base of the army's coastguard troops in Shaqra region, which was seized earlier by Ansar al-Sharia. This strike was followed by some militant clashes between Ansar al-Sharia fighters and the local militants who are trying to drive out al-Qaeda-linked groups from their region. Al-Qaeda-linked groups occupied Zinjibar and Jaar, the  two main  cities of Abyan province about a year ago, after the Yemeni army suddenly withdrew from there, during the public uprising which called for Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Salah to step down.