Sana’a: Two drones have targeted Al Qaida positions in central Yemen two days after a suicide bombing in the south of the country blamed on the extremist group killed 45 people, tribal officials said.
No toll was given for the raids late Monday near Rada, a former Islamist bastion.
Al Qaida fighters have regrouped for the last two days in the Al Hammah and Al Manassah regions near Rada, in Bayda province, 170 kilometres south-east of the capital Sana’a, the sources said.
“Four explosions rocked the area, which was overflown by two drones in the evening,” said one source. “A car belonging to an Al Qaida member was hit by a missile and caught fire.”
The United States is the only country that has drones in the region and it has stepped up its strikes on Al-Qaida targets in the south and east of Yemen.
Washington regards the Yemen-based Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as the most effective branch of the global jihadist network.
Hundreds of Al Qaida gunmen bowed to tribal pressure in January and withdrew from Rada, which they had held for nine days.
At the time the fighters were described as close to Tarek Al Dahab, the brother-in-law of the Yemeni-American extremist Anwar Al Awlaqi, killed in a US air strike in September 2011. Dahab was himself killed in mid-February.
In Saturday’s suicide attack the bomber struck in Jaar, one of a string of towns in Abyan province that were retaken by government troops in June after being held by Al Qaida loyalists for more than a year.
In the east of the country a suspected US drone strike killed five Al Qaida militants late on Saturday.
