US strike kills 11 Al Qaeda militants in Yemen

The United States has raised the tempo in its war against Al Qaeda in Yemen, killing 11 of the terror groups militants in the second, high-profile airstrike in as many weeks. The dead in the late Friday night strike included the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, the prominent American-Yemeni militant killed in a Sept. 30 strike.Yemeni officials on Saturday attributed the recent US successes against Al Qaeda to better intelligence from an army of Yemeni informers and cooperation with the Saudis, Washingtons longtime Arab allies.The successes come even as Yemen falls deeper into turmoil, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh clinging to power in the face of months of massive protests. Saturday saw the worst bloodshed in weeks in the capital, Sanaa: At least 18 people were killed when Salehs troops fired on protesters and clashed with rivals. Witnesses estimated up to 300,000 people joined Saturdays demonstrations, the largest in the capital in several months.Everyone with interests in Yemen, including Al Qaeda and the Americans, is raising the stakes at this time of uncertainty said analyst Abdul-Bari Taher. The Americans are wasting no time to try and eliminate the Al Qaeda threat before the militants dig in deeper and cannot be easily dislodged.Also dead in the Friday airstrike in the southeastern province of Shabwa was Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Banna, identified by the nations Defense Ministry as the media chief of the Yemeni branch of the Al Qaeda.