Militants temporarily seize airport in Yemen

Suspected al-Qaeda gunmen briefly seized a Yemeni airport in a deadly assault on Thursday, just as a civilian airliner was landing, before the airfield was retaken by the army, officials said.

They gunned down three soldiers at the entrance to Sayun airport in southeastern Hadramawt province, which is also used by the air force, before capturing the control tower and other parts of the facility, a security official said.

The assault took place as a Yemen Airways plane landed, a military official said.

As troops retook the airport, six militants were killed, four militants were captured and hostages who had been seized were freed from the control tower, a security official said.

Three other attacks near the airport also on Thursday claimed the lives of at least 14 others:

• Five soldiers died in a simultaneous suicide bombing at a nearby military headquarters, the officials said.
• Nine civilians, including a woman and her two children, were also killed and eight others were wounded in a suicide attack by the militants at a date packing plant en route to the airport, the defence ministry said.
• Two soldiers were killed at a state-run telecom company

Sayun is the main town in the Hadramawt valley, an area with rugged terrain that provides convenient hideouts for militants of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered by Washington as the extremist network's most dangerous affiliate.

Just weeks ago, on 24 May, militants targeted the town in a massive pre-dawn assault, in which they attacked police and army bases and public buildings with suicide bombers, rocket-launchers and heavy machineguns.

Before withdrawing, they also ransacked the main post office and two banks.

The assault killed 15 soldiers and police. Twelve militants also died, three of them suicide bombers.

Yemen has been dogged by turmoil since pro-democracy protests in 2011 forced autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 33 years in power.

In recent months, scores of security personnel have been killed in attacks across the country that officials blame on suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants.

In late April, Yemen's army launched a ground offensive against the group in two southern provinces - Abyan and Shabwa.

The operation aims to expel the militants from smaller towns and villages in the two provinces that escaped a previous sweep in 2012.

President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has vowed to press the offensive until extremists are eradicated from all of Yemen's territory.

Although government forces have captured several major towns, analysts say the army's gains may have been the result of a tactical retreat by al-Qaeda in coordination with Yemen's powerful tribes.

AQAP has also been targeted in an intensifying drone war this year.

The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but US officials rarely acknowledge the covert operations.

Around 60 suspected militants were killed in a wave of strikes against AQAP bases and training camps in mid-April.

The drone programme has been defended by both the White House and Hadi, but has been sharply criticised by human rights groups for its civilian toll.