The situation had become so dire that a colonel in the Yemeni army accused the government of deliberately allowing losses in an attempt to “prove” the country needed the injured president Saleh to keep it from collapsing. “Yemen army, tribes in offensive on militants in south,” by Mohammed Mukhashaf for Reuters, July 17:
ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni forces backed by armed tribesmen launched an offensive to retake Zinjibar, capital of southern Abyan province, officials said on Sunday, after months of fighting with Islamist militants who seized the city.
Dozens have been killed and some 54,000 civilians have fled Abyan, which has descended into daily bloodshed as the army confronts militants the government says have ties to al Qaeda.
The region lies east of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
After weeks of pleas for support from a besieged military brigade near Zinjibar, the government sent the first reinforcements on Saturday, aiming to flush militants out of the seaside city.
“The head of the Defense Ministry sent reinforcements including tanks, rocket launchers and 500 extra soldiers,” a local official said.
“These forces began attacking (the city) backed by heavy tank shelling and rocket attacks from naval ships in order to liberate the 25th Brigade just outside Zinjibar and under siege for over a month.”
Tribesmen who joined the offensive said they had sent about 450 men to Zinjibar. They had begun to plan attacks on the militants last week, saying the army had been ineffective.
The heavy offensive, which began late on Saturday, has caused dozens of casualties in Zinjibar, residents told Reuters by telephone, describing how army ambulances screeched through the city on Sunday, filled with dozens of wounded people.
In nearby Jaar, Islamist militants who seized the city in March sent gunmen to surround and occupy a government hospital, medics at the hospital told Reuters.
The militants were now using the hospital to treat their wounded fighters from Zinjibar, they said. Doctors and patients were permitted to leave the hospital, they said, as the militants brought their own medical team into the hospital. […]
Opposition groups accuse Saleh of letting his forces ease up in the south to stoke fears in the international community that only he stood in the way of a militant takeover….