The Yemeni army announced Tuesday it gave al-Qaida militants seven days to quit captured towns in the country's southern regions after ten months of fighting between the two sides, a senior army officer told Xinhua.
The commanders of four armored army brigades tasked with fighting al-Qaida operatives across Abyan province have given the terrorists one week to leave seized town of Jaar and Abyan's provincial capital city of Zinjibar, the officer said on condition of anonymity.
"If they did not do what we ask, the army forces will take action against the terrorist group members either by launching large-scale attacks or more intensified air strikes," he said.
A close source to the al-Qaida militants told Xinhua anonymously that "our brave fighters defied the deadline by the U. S. backed army to leave their strongholds."
"We are on the high alert for confronting any possible attacks, " the source added.
In the suburbs of Zinjibar, at least four al-Qaida militants were killed early Tuesday in ongoing battles with army barracks, according to a soldier who was involved in the fighting.
Newly-elected President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi vowed to strengthen security and intelligence cooperation with the United States in combating the Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that threatened the daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Since January 2011, when protests erupted against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, militants of the AQAP have been working to bolster their presence in Yemen's remote regions.
The group has taken control of swathes of areas and towns across the restive southern provinces, as the Yemeni government engaged in fierce clashes with the militants over the past several months, leaving hundreds of people killed.
The AQAP, entrenching itself mainly in Yemen's southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa, is on the terrorist list of the United States.