Yemen air raid kills two Al-Qaeda leaders: official

Yemeni aircraft killed 34 suspected Al-Qaeda members, including senior leaders, in a dawn raid on Thursday in a remote mountainous region, the second such strike in eight days, security sources said."The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh," Shabwa province, one source said, referring to a rugged location about 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the capital Sanaa.

At least 70 people were killed in a Saudi air raid on a Yemeni village near the border with Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Yemen's Huthi rebels alleged, declaring the incident a "massacre."A spokesman for Yemen's army, Askar Zuail, confirmed air raids in the region but said they were carried out by Yemeni planes and targeted rebel positions and not civilians.An Internet rebel statement said the attack was carried out Sunday morning against the village of Bani Maan in Razeh region of northern Sadaa province, the mountainous stronghold of the rebels.

An air strike on Friday on an Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) position in north Yemen killed six suspected leaders of the group, including its military boss, a senior Yemeni official said.Qassem al-Rimi was among 23 people who made a daring escape from a state security prison in Sanaa in February 2006 that left the government red-faced."Six Al-Qaeda leaders, including the network's military chief, Qassem al-Rimi, were killed on Friday," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Yemeni security forces have killed an Al-Qaeda kingpin in Shabwa province in intensive operations against the group believed behind the botched bombing of a US airliner, an official said Wednesday."Abdullah Mehdar was killed last night by security forces which had besieged the house he hid in," provincial Governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told reporters.Mehdar was the leader of an Al-Qaeda cell in al-Houta region, in the province of Shabwa, 600 kilometres (375 miles) east of Sanaa.Security forces were hunting for the remaining members of the cell, Ahmadi said.

An Al-Qaeda militant killed a police guard and seriously wounded another on Sunday as he tried to escape from custody in a Yemeni hospital, the defence ministry said."Guards at Sanaa's Republican Hospital foiled a bid by an Al-Qaeda member involved in several terrorist attacks who was hospitalised for several days," the ministry's 26sep.net website said a statement."He managed to get hold of the weapon of one of his guards as he was helping him to the toilet, and opened fire on him and on another guard," the statement said.

The leader of Yemen's Zaidi Shiite rebels Abdul Malek al-Huthi may have been killed following an air raid last week and buried, a website linked to the defence ministry reported on Sunday."There are increasing reports of the death of the terrorist Abdul Malek al-Huthi, who suffered serious injuries in an (air) raid," in the northern mountainous province of Saada, according to the website www.26sep.net"Information indicates that he was buried in Jebel Talan overlooking the Malahidh near the house of one of the relatives of the Huthi family, Ahmed al-Hadawi," it said.

Gunmen in a car on Sunday opened fire on a military checkpoint killing three soldiers in Shabwa province where Yemeni forces are engaged in a battle to eradicate Al-Qaeda, a local official said."Unknown assailants opened fire from a car on a checkpoint in Ataq, killing three soldiers," the official told AFP.Ataq is the main city in Shabwa province, which lies 600 kilometres east of Sanaa.

Thirty-four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed in an air raid launched at dawn Thursday by the Yemeni army against a meeting place of the terror group in Chabwa province east of Sanaa, a security source said.