SANAA, Yemen — Al Qaeda-linked militants temporarily seized parts of a provincial capital in southern Yemen on Wednesday, the latest in a series of brazen attacks by extremists taking advantage of the turmoil in the poor Arab nation.
The increasingly bold fighters are expanding their reach after wounded President Ali Abdullah Saleh left for Saudi Arabia and cast the country into deeper chaos.
Their gains in a nearly lawless region of southern Yemen lend urgency to U.S. efforts to bolster military capabilities that can be used to strike at the terrorist network.
As many as 200 militants from the al Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Shariah - supporters of Islamic Shariah laws - launched a surprise dawn attack on Houta, capital of southern Lahj province, killing one soldier and wounding three before taking control of several neighborhoods, according to security officials.
They held them for nearly 12 hours, forcing stores to close and residents to stay home. They pulled out in late afternoon, taking new positions in farmlands just outside the city’s southern outskirts.
It was not clear why they withdrew, but some residents said the incursion appeared to be a show of force by the militants, who since late May have seized and held two cities, including a provincial capital, in the neighboring province of Abyan.
Yemen is at the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula close to the Gulf’s vast oil fields and strategic shipping lanes in the Arabian and Red seas.
It is home to one of the most active al Qaeda branches, which has been linked to several nearly successful attacks on U.S. targets, including the plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. The group also put sophisticated bombs into U.S.-addressed parcels that made it onto cargo flights.
Yemen is also home to U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whom the United States has put on a kill-or-capture list. Washington accuses him of inspiring attacks on the U.S., including the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people.
Mr. Saleh left Yemen for treatment of wounds he suffered in a rocket attack on his compound in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The president, who is nearly 70, was quoted by the Saudi media Wednesday as saying he was “in good health and steadily improving.”
Yemen’s leader of nearly 33 years, Mr. Saleh has held onto power in the face of massive protests demanding his ouster since February.
Some of his top aides, military commanders, Cabinet ministers and diplomats have defected to the protesters’ side in recent months. This month, troops loyal to him fought rival tribesmen in Sanaa’s streets, with both sides using rockets, mortars and artillery.
The turmoil has created a vacuum in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, threatening to cause the country to unravel or break up.
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