Clashes between the army and Al-Qaeda militants over the control of Yemen’s southern province of Abyan have killed six fighters and a soldier.

Clashes between the army and Al-Qaeda militants over the control of Yemen's southern province of Abyan have killed six fighters and a soldier.

Four Al-Qaeda militants were killed late on Saturday when the army fired artillery rounds south of Jaar," a major Al-Qaeda stronghold in Abyan which the Yemeni troops have been trying to retake since they launched an all-out offensive against the militants on May 12, AFP news agency quoted a local source as saying.

In the nearby provincial capital of Zinjibar, which al-Qaeda overran over a year ago, a military official said that two other militants were killed in clashes Saturday in the city's southern district, while an Al-Qaeda sniper shot dead a soldier.
"The army is controlling most of Zinjibar's outskirts", the official said referring to the northern, eastern, and southern areas.

"But we have not yet taken over central Zinjibar," the official from the 25th Mechanised Brigade fighting in the city said.

He added that the army was still trying to control Zinjibar's remaining northwestern entrances to "cut it off from Jaar and Shaqra," 35 kilometers east of the city and which militants control since June 2011.