Militants have expanded their operations in southern Yemen during months of turmoil which paralyzed the country and eventually unseated former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was replaced in a February vote by Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Local residents in Jaar, a southern town seized by militants in March last year, said Yemen's air force had killed 20 al Qaeda-linked fighters at a military base they had snatched from the government last week.
However, a spokesman for Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) denied its fighters were killed in the raid, which also destroyed weapons and military equipment.
Amid ongoing disruptions to maritime shipping in the Middle East due to the closure of the...
