Officials said Riyad and Washington joined in air strikes and flew supplies to the embattled Yemen Army around Zinjibar. They said the foreign aid allowed the Army's 25th Brigade to break out of an Al Qaida siege that lasted nearly five months.

The Defense Ministry said at least 280 people were killed in fighting between the brigade and AQAP. The ministry said most of the casualties, more than three times the figure previously released by Sanaa, consisted of Yemeni soldiers.

"The southern military region lost more than 230 martyrs in the fighting," Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmed said.

Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan, has long been regarded as a strategic location. Yemen employs the coastal city for the transport of three million barrels of crude oil per day.

Still, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula remains deployed in Abyan, including partsof Zinjibar.

Officials said AQAP was regrouping in Jaar, located near Zinjibar.

"We are pursuing limited pockets of militants," Yemen Army Gen. Mohammed Al Somali said. "But the real battle will be to cleanse the town of Jaar."

Officials said President Ali Abdullah Saleh congratulated the Army from Saudi Arabia. Saleh has been confined to Saudi Arabia since June when he was flown for medical treatment in wake of a bombing of his compound.

---