Suspected al-Qaeda militant killed in Yemen clashes

By Mohammed al-Samei

TAIZ, Yemen (AA) – A suspected al-Qaeda militant was killed in clashes with government forces in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province on Monday, according to a Yemeni military spokesman.

“Abu Khalid al-Sanani, who is believed to be an al-Qaeda member, was killed in clashes during a raid in eastern Taiz,” Colonel Abdul Basset al-Bahr told Anadolu Agency by phone.

He said government forces have launched a security crackdown on militants in Al-Aradi neighborhood in eastern Taiz.

"The clashes are still continuing” in the area, he said.

Though the spokesman did not specify to which group the militants belonged, local Yemeni sources said that they were close to local Islamist leader Abu al-Abbas, who is opposing the Yemeni government.

Held by government forces, Taiz has been under a siege imposed by Houthi rebels since 2015.

Yemen has been racked by violence since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country. The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

The ongoing violence has devastated basic services, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation in Yemen as one of “the world’s worst humanitarian disasters in modern times”.