Airstrikes killed 18 al-Qaida in central Yemen

Separate strikes targeted militants in the south, officials said, as the military struck back at the group after it killed nearly 200 of its soldiers. The military offensive comes in response to an attack last week in which al-Qaida s militants sneaked across the desert at dawn to the back lines of Yemeni forces. Many of the troops were asleep in their tents when militants sprayed them with bullets. Their bodies, many of which were missing heads or mutilated, were later dumped in the desert. The bloody assault on the military in Abyan province revealed the magnitude of the Yemeni army s defeat after nearly a year of political turmoil across the country has left an emboldened al-Qaida in its wake. Yemen s new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, faces the heavy burden of trying to dislodge the militants. He was sworn-in as president Feb. 25 after taking over from Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the country for more than three decades.