SANAA: US drone strikes killed at least eight suspected Al Qaeda militants in Yemen yesterday, bringing the number of people killed by drones in less than two weeks to at least 25.
The strikes follow Yemen’s announcement on Wednesday that it had foiled a plot by Al Qaeda to seize two major oil and gas export terminals and a provincial capital in the east of the country.
Witnesses and local officials in Maareb, a mostly desert region in the southeast where militants have taken refuge, said a drone fired at two vehicles suspected of carrying Al Qaeda militants at dawn, killing six people.
Residents saw the two vehicles rise in flames and the drone circled the air for a while after the attack.
Another two were killed in the eastern region of Hadramout, local officials said.
At least 25 suspected militants have been killed since July 28, when a drone strike killed at least four members of Ansar Al Sharia, a local militant group affiliated to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), one of the most active branches of the network founded by Osama bin Laden.
More violence took place in northern Yemen yesterday when five Salafis, followers of puritanical Sunni Islam, were killed in an ambush by Shias.
The attack occurred in Saada, a town near the border with Saudi Arabia about 130km north of the capital, Sanaa. Saada has been under the control of Shia Houthi rebels for several years.
The five Salafis were driving a vehicle when they came under fire in an ambush which injured a further two, Serour Al Wadei, a spokesperson for the Salafi group in Saada, said.
Houthi Shia rebels led an uprising based in the northern Saada province that Yemeni forces struggled to crush. Saudi Arabia’s military intervened in 2009 before a ceasefire took hold the next year.
REUTERS
