‘Saudi agents behind al-Qaeda, Airstrikes in south Yemen kill civilian

He further added that the Saudi agents have also been recruiting Yemeni youths in the southern region.

Informed security sources in Mudia accused al-Qaeda militants of using women and children as human shields in their battles with army forces.

Ongoing clashes between the Yemeni army, and al-Qaeda militants and other armed groups have climbed in the past two days, especially in Abyan’s towns of Loder and Mudia.

Militants have stepped up attacks on Yemeni security officers and carried out a failed attempt to kill a British diplomat in the capital, Sana’a.

Yemeni troops launched a campaign on suspected al-Qaeda cells in the town of Mudia, clashing with militants in the town and pounding the nearby mountains. Some of the shelling reportedly struck civilian centers in Mudia and nearby villages.

Hundreds of residents from around 20 villages in the area have had to flee their homes, the Yemeni Organization for Human Rights and Freedoms said in a statement on Monday. At least four civilians have been killed in the clashes, it added.

At least one civilian has been killed in southern Yemen by two airstrikes carried out by government forces after an ambush by militants killed four soldiers.

An elderly man was killed and two women were wounded in an attack on Shuuba in Abyan province on Sunday, AFP reported.

No casualties have been reported yet from a later airstrike on Nakh Ain.

The operation is part of a larger crackdown on suspected al-Qaeda elements in the south of the country.

Yemeni security sources have said that a car bomb wounded a senior intelligence officer and his assistant in Abyan on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Yemeni authorities have increased security measure around the British and US embassies in the capital.

“Western embassies in Sana’a were put on high security alert — especially the British and American embassies. The government of Yemen has increased security outside those embassies and they were heavily fortified in fears of AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda) retaliation,” CNN quoted an unnamed Yemeni government official.