| FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK TWITTER FLIPBOARD TELEGRAM |
Government officials and residents said fighters from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) were among those who seized Zinjibar, in Abyan province.
But opponents said President Ali Abdullah Saleh had given up the town to stoke fears of a militant takeover.
He is resisting calls to step down, despite months of popular protests and growing opposition from a key tribe.
Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has identified Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) equipped with heavy armor and artillery at the El Obeid Barracks, approximately 270 miles from Abyei town, possibly preparing for deployment to southern areas.
Based on analysis of available transportation logistics and the formation of the units, SSP has concluded that the forces there are capable of imminent forward movement.
President Boris Tadic of Serbia announced at a news conference in Belgrade on Thursday that Ratko Mladic, the fugitive accused of masterminding the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, had been captured.
Mr. Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general, was one of the world’s most wanted criminals, evading capture for more than 15 years despite an increasing international effort to hunt him down. Serbian news reports said that he was living under the name of Milorad Komadic and that he was captured after a tip that he had identification documents for Mladic and appeared physically similar.
Mr. Mladic was blamed for the worst ethnically motivated mass murder on the Continent since World War II, which resulted in the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys from the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: “We have a rough estimate of 15,000 people displaced in and around Agok town.”
Agok is about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Abyei. Abyei, claimed by both north and south, was due to vote on its future alongside a referendum on independence for the south.
Masked men, allegedly shouting they were members of the Irish Republican Army, abandoned a small bomb and fled a commercial area in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the mayor said Saturday.
Londonderry Mayor Colum Eastwood, a member of the Social Democratic Party, said the bomb was carried into the office of the Santander bank on Shipquay Street on Saturday by the men who immediately fled the scene. The bomb, which exploded an hour later, did not cause injuries or substantial damage, he said.