Yemen's army has freed a brigade that had been besieged for months in its base by militants who took over the nearby coastal city of Zinjibar, state television reported on Saturday.
The 25th brigade was besieged in May after militants - believed to be affiliated with the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group - took over the southern city.
Since March, Abyan's capital Zinjibar has been under the control of militants, who declared the city an "Islamic emirate.", DPA reported.
The government said the group took advantage of the unrest and the anti-government protests that have been gripping the country since February.
Opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh accuse him of exaggerating the al-Qaeda threat in Yemen to pressure regional and international powers, including Saudi Arabia and the United States to support him.
The president has been in Riyadh since travelling to Saudi Arabia to treat injuries sustained in an attack on his palace in early June.