Troops rout al-Qaida in Yemen's south

SAN'A, Yemen -- Troops backed by armed tribesmen routed al-Qaida yesterday from two southern strongholds the terror network had held for more than a year, the most significant victory so far in a monthlong 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 Saudi Arabia, has al-Qaida'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 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. Others looted warehouses filled with humanitarian supplies delivered by relief groups, Waleed Mohammed, a resident, said.

"We thought it would take a year for the army to get rid of al-Qaida, but we were surprised when they swept into the town in no time," said Jaar resident Khaled Mohsen. "I had been hearing a constant exchange of gunfire all night, then suddenly everything was quiet. I looked from the windows, and I saw soldiers in uniform in the center of the town."

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-Qaida'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-Qaida: sleeper cells, which are hard to chase.

"This is the end of al-Qaida's aspirations to establish an Islamic rule in the south. There is no comeback to this," said Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Sawmali.

"However, this is not the end of al-Qaida in the country. We expect the group to carry out selective operations targeting key political and military figures," al-Sawmali said, speaking to The Associated Press from the governor's office in Zinjibar, which al-Qaida had turned into a command center.