Agence France Presse reported Tuesday that at least two Al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in Yemen's southern Shabwa province under Sanaa's shelling offensive.
The government strike targeted the town of Al Saeed, and Yemen officials told AFP that the shelling killed "Nasser and Ahmed bin Atef, brothers of local Al Qaeda chief Saad bin Atef, both of whom are active members in the network."
The Yemeni army also allegedly seized an Al Qaeda stronghold in the southern province of Abyan.
"We entered Wadi Dhiqa this morning, a major stronghold of AQAP militants ... who fled under the pressure of troops to Al Koor," a mountainous region nearby, the source said.
At least 72 militants and another 24 soldiers have been killed under the government's offensive on the south in its effort to oust Al Qaeda militants from the country.
Yemen's Al Qaeda chapter, AQAP, is considered the most dangerous within the global terrorist organization by the United States, and AQAP has denounced Sanaa's offensive as a"premeditated military escalation" that came after "the Yemeni defense minister visited Washington to receive the orders of his American masters".
