SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen said its security forces backed by warplanes killed up to 30 al Qaeda militants on Thursday, and a security source said the operations had foiled a planned series of suicide bombings.

A soldier stands guard near the historical city of Shibam (in background) in south-eastern Yemen, March 17, 2009. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

According to a government website, Yemeni forces hit a number of al Qaeda targets including a training center in the southern province of Abyan. This had led to the killing of 24-30 militants including foreigners, it said, without giving their nationalities.

The security source told Reuters that altogether 34 al Qaeda militants had been killed and 17 arrested in Abyan and in Arhab district, northeast of the capital Sanaa.

“The operation led to the foiling of an al Qaeda plan aiming to hit foreign and local interests and schools, including eight suicide bombers who were preparing explosive belts to carry out the plan,” the source said.

An opposition website quoted sources in Abyan as saying 53 people were killed there, including local al Qaeda leaders, but that most of the victims were women and children.

As well as fighting al Qaeda militants, Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, is battling a separate Shi’ite rebellion in the north and separatist unrest in the south.

Analysts say such conflicts, along with falling oil income, water shortages and a humanitarian crisis, add to instability in a region that includes oil superpower Saudi Arabia and one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

SAUDI OFFENSIVE

The conflict in northern Yemen drew in Saudi Arabia last month when the rebels briefly occupied some Saudi territory, prompting Riyadh to launch a military offensive against them. The rebels accuse Riyadh of backing Sanaa militarily since the war started.

The world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia fears the growing instability in Yemen could turn into a big security threat for the kingdom by allowing al Qaeda to gain a stronger foothold in Yemen.

The Gulf Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi said on Wednesday it was giving a 2.39 billion dirham ($650 million) grant to Yemen to finance energy, housing, healthcare and infrastructure projects.

A senior Gulf official said on Tuesday the U.S.-allied six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council had agreed to create a joint rapid deployment force to tackle security threats in the region.

The force would intervene in situations similar to the incursion into Saudi Arabia by the Yemeni rebels, said Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah, secretary-general of the GCC, which comprises Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Diplomats say oil-rich GCC states are increasingly willing to help Yemen tackle its problems after a period in which they viewed the country with suspicion in the wake of its support for Iraq during the Iraq-Kuwait crisis of 1990-91.