ADEN, June 23: Yemeni troops took control on Saturday of the southeastern town of Azzan, a known Al Qaeda bastion, after the group’s fighters left it a week ago, an official said.

Thirty-five people, meanwhile, were killed in the southern Abyan province over the past 10 days in explosions from landmines laid by Al Qaeda men before they fled from the province, officials said.

“Some 60 vehicles of army and security forces have been deployed across central Azzan,” a local government official said, adding that army warplanes were seen flying over the area.

Witnesses confirmed that Azzan, in the southeastern Shabwa province, was finally handed over to the army by a committee of tribal mediators to whom Al Qaeda fighters had initially passed over control.

State news agency Saba said troops backed by armed militiamen had “claimed a final victory over the Al Qaeda terrorist network, spreading state control to the city and overthrowing what was named the (Islamic) emirate of Azzan.”

On June 17, Al Qaeda militants fled from Azzan, the last town in Yemen where they had established total control.

Al Qaeda had declared an Islamic emirate in the desert town where hundreds of fighters were believed to have sought refuge after fleeing their strongholds in nearby Abyan province.

Taking advantage of a weakening central government control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the militants had overrun most of Abyan, capturing Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several other villages.

But on May 12, Yemen’s military launched an all-out offensive to recapture the province. The army and local militiamen have succeeded in taking over all of Abyan’s towns except for Mahfad where militants still have a strong presence.—AFP