One less ruthless Chechen maniac to worry about.

Aden (AFP) – Five suspected Al-Qaeda members, including a commander with Chechen links, and two soldiers were killed on Saturday in an army offensive against jihadists in the south, official sources said.

“Four Al-Qaeda fighters were killed and nine wounded” in clashes with soldiers in Abyan province, a military source on the ground told AFP.

During fighting in the Sanaj region between Maajala and Wadi Dheiqa, an al-Qaeda bastion, “two soldiers were killed and four more wounded”, the source said.

Earlier, the defence ministry announced the death in Maajala of a foreign fighter it said was from Chechnya.

Abu Islam al-Shishani was the second foreign jihadist to be killed this week since the military launched its latest offensive on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

News of Shishani’s death came as officials blamed AQAP for a suicide bombing at an intelligence post that wounded two guards, and after gunmen killed an army officer in Aden.