Suspected al-Qaida-linked militants killed in southern Yemen. Yemeni forces hit back at alleged al-Qaeda insurgents following Tuesday's attack. Military and medical officials say airstrikes have killed 30 suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in southern Yemen. Eight soldiers also died in clashes in the area. The officials say the strikes targeted militants near Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, early on Wednesday. They say 40 militants were also wounded in the operation, which was a "deadly blow" to the militants. The officials say eight soldiers died in the Dufas area, close to Zinjibar. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media. Militants have used Yemen's political turmoil to overrun Zinjibar and several towns in the south. Government forces have been trying to dislodge them with airstrikes and ground troops.

On Tuesday, seven soldiers were killed on Tuesday and 30 others wounded in an attack launched by suspected al-Qaeda fighters on a base in the restive southern province of Abyan, a senior officer told AFP. "Six soldiers and an officer were killed and 30 others wounded when Al-Qaeda militants attacked the camp of the 201 Brigade in Dofes," south of Abyan, capital of Zinjibar, the officer said. The attackers had used the cover of a wooded area around the base to approach a unit of the brigade and opened fire with rocket-launchers and automatic weapons. An official from a military hospital that took in the casualties confirmed the toll. On Monday, government warplanes killed six presumed al-Qaeda fighters in Arkub, another village in Abyan province, that they had seized a day earlier.

In other news, Yemen’s prime minister became the first senior politician injured in a June assassination attempt on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to return home from Saudi Arabia, a government official said on Tuesday. The official told Reuters that Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Megawar arrived in the capital Sana’a on Tuesday evening and was greeted at the airport by hundreds of government officials and supporters.
Megawar had been receiving medical treatment in Riyadh, along with a number of other presidential aides and Saleh himself. Saleh has repeatedly said he will also return to the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, which has been paralyzed by months of protests against his 33-year authoritarian rule.