Al-Qaida fighters retook on Wednesday two southern Yemeni towns they briefly occupied four years ago, residents and local fighters said, exploiting a collapse of central authority in Yemen which is in the throes of an eight-month war. In an early morning surprise attack on the Abyan province capital Zinjibar and neighboring town of Jaar, the militants overcame local forces and announced their takeover over loudspeakers after dawn prayers. Residents identified them as Ansar al-Sharia, a local affiliate of al-Qaida. At least seven local militiamen and five militants were killed, according to local fighters. Militants were deployed to the streets of both towns, and in Jaar blew up the house of a local commander killed in the fighting, residents said. Schools and shops were closed.

A Saudi-led coalition has since March been trying to vanquish Yemen's Iran-backed Shiite Houthis, who captured large parts of the country and wrested control from its government, which only recently returned from exile. "The entrance of al-Qaida this time happened in the absence of any state institutions, which al-Qaida exploited," said Zinjibar resident Fadl Mohammed Mubarak. Jaar and Zinjibar are about 50 km (30 miles) east of the main port city of Aden, where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is currently staying after returning from Saudi Arabia last month. Parts of Abyan including Zinjibar and Jaar fell to militants in 2011 for over a year as government control waned during Arab Spring protests.

This time, Yemen's northern Houthi clan and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh are fighting against the Saudi-led Arab coalition and fighters loyal to Hadi. On Wednesday, local militia commander Abdullatif al-Sayed, said his forces tried to repel the attacks. He said he had tried to alert government officials to what he thought were suspicious al-Qaida movements, but had received no help. Fighters allied with Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, retook Aden from the Houthis in July, but residents have complained of lawlessness in the city as masked gunmen appeared on its streets. Jaar has in past years lost civilians in air strikes intended for militants, and during a visit by Reuters to Jaar in late 2013, sympathy for militants was still evident. Tribal leaders have often warned U.S. drone attacks on al-Qaida were creating sympathy for the group.