Air raids on al-Qaeda bases in Yemen 'kill 15' The fourth strike hit an al-Qaeda control post, killing three more people, they said. "Two planes carried out these raids and continued to fly over the region through the night," a tribal chief told AFP. The deteriorating security situation in Yemen, caught up in an Arab pro-democracy uprising unleashed a year ago, has raised alarm including at the UN Security Council of a growing presence of al-Qaeda militants in lawless areas in the south and east of the country. In mid-January the extremists made a significant advance towards the capital Sanaa when more than 1,000 al-Qaeda fighters swept into the town of Rada and held it for nine days. They bowed to tribal pressure and withdrew from the town, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Sanaa, after authorities pledged to free 15 militants. The New York Times reported in June that the United States had stepped up its attacks on militant suspects in Yemen with armed drones and fighter jets. Saleh is in the United States for medical treatment after being seriously wounded in a bombing at the presidential palace in Sanaa in June. In November, after 10 months of bloody protests, he signed a deal by which he transferred constitutional powers to his deputy who is the sole candidate for next month's presidential polls.