Al-Qaeda militants released on Monday all the inmates of the central jail of Rada'a, a town they seized on Saturday, local sources told Yemen Post.
The inmates were imprisoned due to criminal cases and they have no ties with Al-Qaeda, affirmed the sources.
The sources said the militants pledged allegiance to Tareq Al-Dhahab, a tribal leader who is a relative of Anwar Al-Walaki, a Yemeni-American cleric who was killed in a American drone strike last fall.
"Al-Dhahab directed to cut prices of oil derivatives in an attempt to gain sympathy of locals" said a resident of Rada'a, a town of approximately 60,000 people.
They further confirmed that a tribal leader of Rada'a, Abdul-Salam Al-Nosairi, had hosted Al-Dhahab and submitted him keys of the archeological citadel of Alamiria.
Other tribal leaders of Rada'a, some 150 Km south of capital Sana'a, are preparing for holding a meeting on Monday evening to take decisive actions against the militants, added they.
Eyewitnesses cited that armed men deployed in a number of Rada'a streets and controlled government facilitates amid absolute ignorance of security forces.
Meanwhile, a demonstration took to streets of Baidha city, raising slogans that rejected Al-Qaeda existence in their governorate and accused forces loyal to the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of supporting to Al-Qaeda militants.
A senior leader of the Yemeni opposition has accused Saleh of supporting Al-Qaeda, helping it control Yemeni towns and attempting to show to the world that he is the only man who can defeat Al-Qaeda.
The Assistant Secretary General of the Yemeni Socialist Party, Yahya Abu Asboa, told an Emirati newspaper, Al-Byan, that he has information that Yemeni army and security forces loyal to Saleh cooperate with Al-Qaeda militants to expand.