Drone strike kills 4 Al Qaida suspects in Yemen
ADEN, Dec 23, 2015 (AFP) - A presumed US drone strike has killed four suspected members of Al Qaida in central Yemen, a security official said Wednesday.
The raid targeted their vehicle on Tuesday evening near the border of Baida and Shabwa provinces, the official said.
The United States is the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen.
It has kept up strikes on militants during months of fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite Al Houthi militants who control the capital.
Yemen, home to what the United States considers Al Qaida’s most dangerous affiliate, has been convulsed by unrest since the Iran-backed Al Houthis seized Sana’a in September last year.
Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has exploited the turmoil to tighten its grip on parts of southeast Yemen, including Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, imposing a strict form of Islamic law.
Meanwhile, Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Yemeni army colonel and a southern resistance leader in Aden on Tuesday night, a local official said, the latest in a string of assassinations in the city often carried out by Islamist militants.
The gunmen opened fire on a car containing resistance leader Jalal Al Awbali and the unidentified colonel in the Dar Saad district of northern Aden, killing them both immediately, the official said.
The rate of attacks in Aden has accelerated since July, when local forces backed by the government of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and a Saudi-led military alliance recaptured the city from the Al Houthi militia after months of street fighting.
Insecurity in Aden, the biggest prize yet won by Hadi in Yemen’s nine-month civil war, threatens to undermine the campaign waged on his behalf against Al Houthis and army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
