| Al Jazeera America | - |
At least four suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in air strikes in Yemen
on Monday, following the deaths of several soldiers in the south of the
country, local officials and state news agency Saba reported.
Yemen drone strikes, ambushes kill 10
At least four suspected Al-Qaeda fighters are among the dead, according to local officials and the state news agency
- Topics:
- Yemen
- Middle East
- Drones
Saba said armed men set upon the soldiers in a pair of ambushes, killing six, after the soldiers had foiled a mortar and rocket propelled grenade attack on a gas pipeline in the southern Shabwa province.
The news agency said 14 other soldiers were wounded in the ambushes between Mayfa'a and Radoum districts in Shabwa. Saba did not identify the attackers but the government often blames Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda for trying to sabotage the country's infrastructure.
Local residents said a U.S. drone later targeted a vehicle travelling in the area and killed two of its occupants.
Local officials said two more suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in another drone strike in the Maarib province, an oil-producing area in central Yemen where Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operates.
Violence has roiled the U.S.-allied country which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia since 2011, when mass protests forced long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against AQAP, regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the network.
Yemen, AQAP's main stronghold, is among a handful of countries where the U.S. acknowledges using drones, although it does not comment on the practice which has been criticized by human rights organizations.
Last year, a missile strike allegedly carried out by the U.S. in Yemen — which hit a wedding convoy, killing twelve men and wounding 15 others — may have been a violation of the laws of war, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, which said that some or all of the men killed in the Dec. 12, 2013, incident might have been civilians, contrary to initial claims from Yemeni officials that the men were fighters. The U.S. has not officially acknowledged carrying out the attack.
The report came just months after two similar investigations into the drone programs in Yemen and Pakistan — by HRW and Amnesty International, respectively — both of which allege some U.S. strikes have violated the laws of war.
It also followed an investigation by Al Jazeera which interviewed Yemeni witnesses to the December 2013 event and survivors from the convoy, who testified that the incident targeted a civilian wedding convoy near the town of Radda' in the central province of al-Baydah.
In addition to the Al-Qaeda threat, Yemen continues to confront demands by southern separatists for independence, and is trying to quell rebels from the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement, which has been on an offensive to extend its control over the north.
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