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Drone raid kills 6 Qaeda suspects in Yemen
A drone strike in eastern Yemen killed six Al-Qaeda suspects today, tribal sources said, in the first such raid since the army launched an offensive against jihadists last month.
A drone strike in eastern Yemen killed six Al-Qaeda suspects today, tribal sources said, in the first such raid since the army launched an offensive against jihadists last month.
The pilotless aircraft targeted a vehicle carrying "Al-Qaeda members" near Al-Husun, a village in Marib province, one source told AFP. The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but US officials rarely acknowledge the covert drone programme.
Yemen's army launched a major offensive on April 29 against strongholds of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, in three provinces in the south and east. It says it has inflicted heavy losses on the jihadists.The offensive was preceded by a wave of US drone strikes that killed scores of suspected Al-Qaeda suspects last month in southern and central regions.
AQAP has been linked to a number of failed terror plots against the United States, and its leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi recently appeared in a rare video in which he vowed to attack Western "crusaders" wherever they are.
