Middle East News

Yemeni lawmakers seek clarity on military strikes

Dec 20, 2009, 15:28 GMT

Sanaa, Yemen - Yemen's parliament summoned the government on Sunday to clarify recent military operations against alleged al-Qaeda camps in the country's south, the official news agency SABA reported. The request from lawmakers came amid reports of a large number of civilian deaths in the operations. The SABA report said parliament had urged the government to 'enhance the accuracy of its targets to avoid error' in pursuing terrorists and insurgents. Forty-nine civilians and 10 militants were killed in airstrikes carried out by the Yemeni army on al-Qaeda camps in the south of the country last week, according to one provincial official. Yislam Nasser Anburi, an official in Mehfed province, told the German Press Agency dpa that the attacks failed to distinguish between civilians and Islamist militants. At least 51 al-Qaeda suspects were killed or arrested last week in ground and air strikes, according to officials with the military in Sanaa said. The international terrorist organization has allegedly set up bases in southern Yemen. South Yemen was an independent country under Communist rule from 1967 until 1990 when it was reunified with the north. Civil unrest several years later was eventually quelled by the central government in Sanaa, though some southern separatist groups are still active.

Middle East News

Yemeni lawmakers seek clarity on military strikes

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