es reported Saturday.

Yemeni security forces killed at least 28 Al-Qaeda militants and captured 17 others in operations backed by air strikes on Thursday that foiled imminent suicide attacks, the defense ministry said.

But witnesses said civilians were among about 50 people killed.

Several fighter planes took part in the raid and hit a civilian area by mistake, a local official in Abyan, a part of the former South Yemen republic authorities say has become a regrouping base for militants, said.

Raids also took place in the capital Sanaa and the neighboring district of Arhab, to the northeast, a defense ministry official.

Some of the strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts in Yemen this week were undertaken by local forces alone, US officials told the Times.

ABC News reported on Friday that the reported attacks included US missiles.

The television network said one of the targeted sites was a suspected training camp for Al-Qaeda north of Sanaa while the second was at a site where “an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned,” according to officials.

It identified raids carried out by Yemeni security forces at three separate locations in addition to the two US cruise missile attacks.

In a speech unveiling his revamped strategy for the war in Afghanistan earlier this month, Obama noted that “where Al-Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold — whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere — they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships.”

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and has seen several attacks claimed by the group on foreign missions, tourist sites and oil installations.

The United States has pressured Sanaa to crack down on the group whose presence threatens to turn Yemen into a base for training and plotting attacks, a top US counterterrorism official said in September.

The Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda is believed to have joined forces with militants in Yemen under the banner of Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula with the aim of launching attacks in Saudi Arabia.