Fighting between soldiers and militants in southern Yemen killed at least 42 people on Wednesday and sent residents fleeing. Homes were destroyed and streets littered with bodies in the town of Azzan in Shabwa Province, witnesses and officials said. The fighting came amid an army offensive against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen’s local branch of the terrorist group. The militants tried to retake the town in a dawn attack as government warplanes and naval forces bombed homes where they were hiding, officials said. Soldiers also battled militants for hours in street-to-street clashes. A military official said the fighting killed at least 30 Qaeda militants, and security officials said the clashes killed at least 12 government troops. It was not immediately clear if there were civilian casualties.
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(via NY Times)
