Aden- Security forces on Monday took control over 80 percent of Abyan, Yemen’s strategic governorate.

According to security sources, only three out of 11 villages remain occupied less than two weeks after the launching of a military campaign to purge the region from terrorist groups along with the support of Arab Coalition forces.

Security was restored in the city, which had been out of the state, regime and law enforcement control, as residents welcomed security forces and as military campaigns and raids to purge every inch of the city continued, according to statements made by Head of Abyan Police Department Abdullah al-Fadli.

Local sources in Zinjibar, capital of Abyan, revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that intensive procedures were conducted by Yemeni Security Belt Forces and the resistance in cooperation with Arab Coalition forces to launch a huge military operation in Maraqshah to cleanse the city from terrorist groups. The city is considered strategic and the main stronghold of al-Qaeda.

Yasser al-Azeb, head of media department in Abyan, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the security forces, army and resistance backed by Arab coalition brought under their control 80 percent of the governorate’s cities except for three.

Azeb affirmed that security forces will not cease military campaigns until Abyan is fully purged.

He added that the situation is stable there amid intense efforts through Arab coalition forces’ support to restore the state’s role and activate government facilities and police departments there. These approaches are being highly welcomed at the official and national level.

These military campaigns were launched mid August, and in less than ten hours the Security Belt Forces succeeded to seize Zinjibar which was occupied by terrorist groups since the war of March 2015 was launched by Houthis militias and forces of the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.