The US provided firepower and intelligence to help the Yemeni government launch a series of deadly raids against suspected al-Qaeda bases in the country, the New York Times has reported.

Barack Obama, the US president approved the military and intelligence support after receiving a request from the Yemeni government, the newspaper reported late on Friday, citing officials familiar with the operations.

Yemeni security officials said that at least 34 suspected al-Qaeda fighters were killed on Thursday in the raids, which targeted sites in the southern province of Abyan and in the district of Arhab, which lies northeast of the capital Sanaa.

Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington, denied that the US launched missiles during the raids.

'Many more killed'

However, residents of Abyan said that there was no al-Qaeda training camp in the area and that the raids had destroyed several homes.

Ali Mohammed Mansour, who said he helped bury the dead in a mass grave, said that the community was only 100 metres away from a main road and 2km from an army base.

Abbas al-Assal, a local human rights activist who was at the scene, said 64 people were killed, including 23 children and 17 women.

"The government wants to show the world that it is serious in pursuing al-Qaeda elements and that the south of Yemen is a refuge for al-Qaeda. That is not true at all," al-Assal told the Associated Press by telephone.

Mohammed Hazran, Abyan's deputy governor, said that 10 al-Qaeda suspects were killed in the attack, including Mohammed Saleh al-Kazemi, a Saudi who had resided in the country since fighting in Afghanistan.

He was imprisoned in Yemen for two years before being released in 2005.

'Grave mistakes'

A provincial security official said that "grave mistakes occurred in the operation due to failures of information, which led to a large number of civilian deaths".

"If [al-Kazemi] was wanted, why didn't the authorities come and arrest him all this time?" he said.

Al-Qaeda fighters are thought to be living among tribes that have raised concerns with the central government, especially in the northeast of the country.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map locates Abyan province, Yemen.

Al-Jazeera