Al-Qaeda fighters captured a major town in southern Yemen on Wednesday, residents and a local official said, in the latest blow to the beleaguered Gulf-backed President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi.The militants took over the town of Jaar in Abyan province after fierce clashes with a local pro-government militia, the official said.Al-Qaeda terrorist group has taken the opportunity of Yemen's civil war between the mainly Shiite Houthi rebels and opponents to spread its influence in areas outside the control of the Houthis.It has controlled the city of Mukalla, capital of the sprawling south-eastern Hadhramaut province, since April.The group is reported to be active even in the key southern city of Aden, where Hadi's government is currently based after an alliance of local fighters backed by Gulf troops drove out Houthis attackers in July.Earlier in 2015, Houthi rebels took over Yemen's official capital Sanaa, forcing the government to go on exile. The government has relocated the capital to Aden since then.The civil war in Yemen, which began as a consequence of Arab Spring revolutions in late 2010, has resulted in deaths of more than 6000 civilians and destroying the country, pushing the more than 20 million people [80 percent of the population] to a humanitarian disaster, including famine, UN has said.