Yemen drives al-Qaeda from 2 major strongholds

Yemeni troops backed by armed tribesmen have routed al-Qaeda from two southern strongholds the terror network had held for more than a year, the most significant victory so far in a month-long offensive against a local franchise that has tried time and again to bomb U.S.-bound planes.     

The military campaign, orchestrated by U.S. military advisers and bankrolled by neighboring Saudi Arabia, has left al-Qaeda's dangerous Yemen branch on the run. The group remained in control of only a handful of towns, with hundreds of its members scattered in the mountains, valleys and vast desert of the Arab world's most impoverished country.     

In one of the liberated strongholds, Jaar, residents flocked to the town center, firing guns in the air in celebration after the army's dawn attack on Tuesday. Others looted warehouses filled with humanitarian supplies delivered by relief groups, Waleed Mohammed, a resident, said in a telephone interview.     

The breakthrough follows other key victories against the Pakistan-based terror network since the death last year of Osama bin Laden. Most notably, CIA drone strikes killed Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaeda's No. 2, on June 4 in Pakistan; and Anwar al-Awlaki, an enormously influential American-Yemeni cleric, on Sept. 30 in Yemen.     

With the capture of Jaar and the city of Zinjibar, Yemen's new U.S.-backed leadership now has to deal with another fight in its war against al-Qaeda: sleeper cells, which are hard to chase.     

Meanwhile, a drone strike killed 9 al-Qaeda militants in Yemen on Wednesday.

AP/LBCI