Yemen's government struck back Monday against militants said to have ties to Al-Qaeda, which U.S. officials have said has a large presence in Yemen. Government planes bombed several suspected militant positions in the south of the country, killing at least 15. The strikes also destroyed a tank that militants had seized near Zinjibar, a large town that was recently overrun by Yemeni rebels.
Militants in southern Yemen have been gradually increasing their influence and taking more territory. Zinjibar fell to the rebels in June, and members of several radical Muslim groups, including Ansar al-Shariah, and burned down banks, government offices, and police installations.
The months-long uprising in Yemen, which features near-daily demonstrations by tens of thousands of people, is aimed at forcing President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Saleh is currently being treated in a Saudi Arabian hospital for injuries he sustained as a result of a bomb attack on his palace in early June.
Demonstrators had hoped that the movement against him, combined with his semi-incapacitated state, would encourage him to resign, but so far Saleh has dug in his heels. On Monday, a government spokesperson reiterated that Saleh had no plans to quit. “The burn injuries of President Saleh do not mean he is under incapacity, which set by the Yemeni Constitution as a reason to transfer power to his deputy Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi," said deputy information minister Abdu al- Janadi. Speaking to reporters Monday in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, al-Janadi said that the vice-president remained firmly in charge, and consulted frequently with Saleh.
A Saleh aide was quoted in the media as saying that the president could return to Yemen and begin to actively run the country again as soon as next week.