Ten dead in Yemen 'anti-Qaeda offensive' THE Yemeni army has launched an all-out offensive to recapture villages from militants in the southeastern province of Hadramawt, costing 10 lives, security and medical sources say. Troops backed by tanks and helicopters launched a dawn operation in Ghayl Bawazir, about 30 kilometres east of the port city of Mukalla, a security official said. The sources said seven al-Qaeda militants, two civilians and an army officer were killed in the offensive. An army spokesman in Hadramawt, quoted by the defence ministry's news website 26sep.net, said that Ghaleb al-Mansoub, a commander in the 27th Mechanised Brigade, was killed during the operation. Another security official had said earlier on Wednesday that two army officers were killed in the offensive near Ghayl Bawazir that would continue until the "liberation" of the town and surrounding areas. But the army spokesman reported only one dead officer and five wounded. Medical sources said later that the second officer, admitted to hospital in Mukalla, was "clinically dead." Medics in Mukalla said two civilians were killed and five others wounded. The army "destroyed weapon caches and seized explosives and motorbikes used" by the insurgents to carry out attacks, the unnamed spokesman said, quoted by 26sep.net.