Sana’a: US drones and Yemen army warplanes have stepped up attacks on Al Qaida positions in Yemen, killing at least 15 Islamists in four days in different provinces.
In the second attack in less than three days, a suspected US drone hit a car carrying two Al Qaida-linked militants in Al Qaten town, the southeastern province of Hadramout, late Tuesday local people told Gulf News.
Witness in the area said that an airplane hovered around the place and fired a rocket at pickup, smashing the car and burnt the bodies of two people who were inside.
The town in known for being plain and has thick plantations of palm trees. On Saturday, another drone stuck a vehicle carrying four passengers who were perished in the attack.
Bomb maker killed
The government news agency, Saba, quoted a security source on Tuesday as saying that seven Al Qaida key figures, including Abdullah Awadh Al Masri, the man who is responsible for manufacturing explosives, were killed in the airstrike that hit Al Qaida sites in Rada,Al Baydha province on Monday night.
Abdullah, known as Abu Osama Al Maaribi,was described as “the most dangerous element” of Al Qaida in the province that was once a stronghold of militants.
Among the dead were two Egyptians, Iraqi, Tunisian, Bahraini and Yemeni.
Separately in the south, ministry of defense announced on Tuesday morning that army soldiers and pro-government armed men stormed Al Qaida’s hiding placing in the town of Jaar in the southern province of Abyan.
The ministry’s news website said that two Al Qaida fighters were killed and three arrested during the armed fighting that resulted from the raid.
