Yemeni army kills nine suspected al-Qaeda militants in an artillery attack on their strongholds in the country’s south.

Yemeni army kills nine suspected al-Qaeda militants in an artillery attack on their strongholds in the country’s south.

The army attack was backed by US drone strikes, whose missiles killed three militants on Sunday as it targeted their weapons hideouts in Jabal Khanfar, a hill overlooking the Abyan town of Jaar, which is controlled by Al-Qaeda militants, a local official said Monday.

Six other militants were killed when the army bombed one of their hideouts in Makhzan, southeast of Jaar, the official said, asking not to be named.

A large amount of weapons seized by the militants in an attack against the army that left 185 soldiers earlier this month, were destroyed in the shelling, said the official.

Witnesses and officials said on Sunday that six US drone missiles had targeted the suspected weapons hideouts in Jabal Khanfar.

Witnesses reported seeing columns of smoke billowing into the sky from the targeted locations and said that government buildings, now controlled by Al-Qaeda fighters, had been damaged.