President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi has ordered the Yemeni army to cleanse Zinjibar of Al-Qaeda militants within days and send military reinforcement to the battle ground, an Emeriti newspaper, Al-Khaleej said .
Hadi had vowed to several times to defeat Al-Qaeda and send back the internally displaced persons to their homes. Thousands persons of Abyan were displaced as a result of violent clashes between the army and the militants.
Meanwhile, about 13 al-Qaeda militants were killed and several others were wounded in clashes between the army and Ansar Alsharia, an Al-Qaeda-linked group after the militants tried to storm the branch of the Central Bank of Yemen in Zinjibar, local sources said.
According to 26 September Newspaper six Al-Qaeda militants and one soldier were killed in the early hours of Sunday.
It made it clear that the clashes between the two sides lasted for two days in the morning of Sunday, and that the militants could escape after the troops strongly responded. Military sources said that army is controlling most of Zinjibar's outskirts, a town that was overran by Al-Qaeda militants over a year ago, pointing out that the militants still take control over the centre of thewon.
They further said the troops try to control the entrances of the town to cut it off from Jaar and Shaqra," 35 kilometers east of the city and which militants control since June 2011.The Yemeni army has been carrying out an offensive against Al-Qaeda strongholds in some towns of Abyan since May 12. It aimed at reclaiming Zinjibar and other localities in Abyan lost to Al-Qaeda during the past year.