Sanaa - Khalid Haroji
An airport official said nine international and seven domestic flights had been cancelled
Twenty-one militants associated with al-Qaeda were killed in attacks carried out by Yemeni troops and US aircraft on al-Qaeda bases in the governorates of Abin and Shabwa
in south Yemen according to Yemeni security sources.
A security source in Abin governorate said 16 al-Qaeda fighters were killed in an airstrike carried out by the Yemeni army on Saturday and Sunday, targetting bases of militants from the Ansar al-Sharia group, affiliated to al-Qaeda, in al-Kud region, close to the province\'s capital city, Zinjibar.
In the neighbouring province, Shabwa, security officials disclosed that two US airstrikes conducted by drone aircraft on Sunday evening, left five militants dead.
In another development, the airport in Yemen\'s capital Sanaa, has reopened after a one-day shutdown prompted by threats from loyalists of the sacked General Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, close to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Forces loyal to Saleh\'s half-brother, who has refused to quit after being sacked by President Abdrabbu Mansour Hady, surrounded the airport late on Saturday.
Head of General Authority for Civil Aviation and Meteorology (GACAM) Hamed Farag told the Yemen News Agency (SABA), that the authority has informed today that all flights have resumed at the airport.
\"The airport was shut down on Saturday after receiving threats from armed groups, who fired shots in areas close to the runways which affected aviation safety\", Farag said.
President Abdrabbu Mansour Hady\'s recent decisions were objected to by the General People\'s Congress Party (GPC), headed by former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, but were nevertheless received positively on the national, regional, and international levels, so Saleh had to bow for them.