Yemen: Saudi coalition says 800 al-Qaeda fighters killed in their stronghold of Mukalla
More than 800 al-Qaeda fighters have been killed in an assault by the Yemeni government and Arab allies on the group’s main stronghold of Mukalla, according to the Saudi-led coalition.
The coalition said in a statement, carried by the official Saudi news agency SPA late on Sunday, that many al-Qaeda members had fled the city, the provincial capital of Hadramout, which they had held for a year.
The statement said the forces of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi were backed by Saudi and Emirati special forces in the operation on Mukalla, which is home to an estimated 200,000 people.
The death toll could not be independently verified.