Yemen's fight against the terrorist network al-Qaeda in the south of the country has shown some successes with the backing of air and naval support, the United Nations said Tuesday, DPA reported.
Jamal Benomar, UN special envoy for Yemen, told the UN Security Council that security remains a major issue, including the suicide bombing last week that killed 96 people and wounded 300 others at a military parade in Sana'a.
He said new Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi's efforts to blunt the advance of al-Qaeda from the south and other parts of the country were beginning to "bear fruit."
Yemeni troops had stepped up their campaign against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni branch of the late Osama bin Laden's organization calls itself, and against militant group Ansar al-Shari'a, and with air and navy support had scored "some recent successes."
Benomar reported incidents of kidnapping and assassination in Yemen, which is in transition to full democracy after last year's popular uprising, with elections next year. Politically motivated attacks against Yemen's infrastructure and oil and gas pipelines have cost an estimated 3 billion dollars a year, Benomar said.
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