President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi has refused a mediation of Salafi clerics to end fighting with Al-Qaeda, conditioning that the group must first surrender all its heavy arms, Al-Ahali Newspaper quoted well-informed sources.
The sources said the clerics met with Hadi on Monday and suggested to make a truce between both sides, pointing out that Hadi expressed his determination to defeat the so-called Ansar Al-Sharia (Supporters of the Islamic Law) in Abyan.
Hadi had met with political, military and tribal leaders of Abyan governorate, his birthplace, on Monday and expressed its willingness to support public committees that fight beside the Yemeni army in Abyan.
The Yemeni News Agency said on Monday said a memo was handed over to Hadi in which tribesmen of Abyan explained deteriorated living conditions in some districts controlled by Al-Qaeda in Abyan.
The memo accused the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh of assisting Al-Qaeda in taking control in Zinjibar and displacing thousands of people.
Among leaders who met with Hadi Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Al-Shadadi, the lawmaker Ali Ashaal, the Culture Minister Abdullah Awbal, and assistant of the Interior Minister Hussein Haitham.
Yemen's Defense Ministry stated on Monday that 22 troops were killed in a raid launched by Al-Qaeda against military positions in Zinjibar of Abyan.
This fierce attack of Al-Qaeda against the Yemen army came after a US drone killed an Al-Qaeda leader, Fahad Al-Qasa'a on Sunday in Al-Saeed district, 60 kilometers east of Shabwa’s capital, Ataq was designated as number three on America's most-wanted list. Hadi vowed in a meeting with military leaders on Saturday to defeat Al-Qaeda and reorganize Yemen's divided military.