Drone strikes likely by US forces in Yemen kill 4 Qaeda members

Three “armed fighters of al Qaeda” died when their vehicle was struck on Saturday in the Sawmaa region of Al-Bayda province of Yemen.

Four suspected al Qaeda members were killed in drone strikes in central Yemen likely carried out by US forces, a security source said on Sunday.

Three “armed fighters of al Qaeda” died when their vehicle was struck on Saturday in the Sawmaa region of Al-Bayda province of Yemen. (AFP file photo)

The source, asking not to be identified, said three “armed fighters of al Qaeda” died when their vehicle was struck on Saturday in the Sawmaa region of Al-Bayda province.

A drone strike on Friday killed a local military instructor for al Qaeda in the same province, he said.

The United States, which considers al Qaeda’s Yemen-based franchise, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), to be its most dangerous, is the only force operating drones over Yemen.

But it only sporadically reports on a long-running bombing campaign against AQAP.

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State jihadist group have exploited a power vacuum created by the two-year-old conflict in Yemen between the government and Shiite Huthi rebels, especially in the country’s south and southeast.