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Al-Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan Abu Hafs al-Shahri has been killed, a senior US official said on Thursday.
The death of Abu Hafs in Waziristan follows the killing of al Qaeda’s number two Atiyah abd al-Rahman last month, and comes amid stepped up US drone strikes following the killing of Osama bin Laden in May.
Fierce clashes overnight between government forces and Islamist militants in southern Yemen killed 14 people, including 12 militants, Yemeni officials said Wednesday.
Loud explosions and exchanges of gunfire were also heard late Wednesday in Sana, the capital, in the neighborhood where the leader of the main tribe opposing Yemen’s president lives. Blasts and gunfire could also be heard early Thursday, Reuters reported, and it said that Al Arabiya television had reported two deaths.
Three explosions were also reported near police stations and an intelligence agency office in Aden, a city in southern Yemen.
Taliban suicide fighters in Kabul have stormed a multistory building that is under construction, taking over the structure and using it as a fortress tower to fire rockets toward several nearby embassies and NATO compounds.
Afghan officials said at least one policeman and two attackers were killed in gun battles within a few hours of the attack on September 13, and that fighting was continuing with several other militants.
Officials later said at least six people had been killed and at least 15 wounded in the attack.
The fighting was taking place in what is usually the most heavily protected part of Kabul.
Three government troops were killed and four others injured on Sunday, when a landmine planted by al-Qaeda militants exploded in the southern province of Abyan, an army officer said.
The army officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that a landmine exploded on the eastern outskirts of Zinjibar city, the provincial capital of Abyan, which was freed on Saturday by a large campaign of the Yemeni army forces.
“A landmine exploded when an army convoy was heading to the Amodia area to track the rest of the al-Qaeda militants,” the army officer from the 119th Armored Brigade told Xinhua.
Libyan opposition forces pushed toward the loyalist stronghold of Sirte after suspending an earlier attack on Bani Walid, one of the last towns controlled by Muammar Qaddafi’s supporters.
The fighting continued a day after the chairman of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, arrived in the capital, Tripoli, to take command of the interim administration. The transitional leadership has been unable to proclaim a full victory because of its failure to find Qaddafi and to gain control of the remaining towns held by his supporters.