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SANA, Yemen — Al- Qaeda militants holed up in a village in south Yemen on Wednesday fought off repeated attempts by government troops backed by tanks and heavy artillery to retake the besieged town, officials said.
Thousands of people have fled Hawta and the surrounding area in Shabwa province since security forces laid siege to the village three days ago. The operation signals an escalation in the government’s U.S.-backed push to uproot the terror network’s local offshoot, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
