Monday, October 22, 2012

US drones kill 4 AQAP fighters in Yemen


US drones killed four al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in a strike in southern Yemen, in the second such attack in the country in four days.

The unmanned Predators or Reapers fired several missiles at a vehicle as it was traveling in the Wadi Abida area in Marib province tonight, officials said according to The Yemen Post.

An AQAP operative known as Sanad Oraidan al Okailim, whose brother was killed in Abyan province earlier this year, was among the four people killed in the nighttime attack, according to the Yemeni news service. A second vehicle arrived at the scene following the strike and its occupants removed the bodies of those killed.

The strike tonight was certainly carried out by the US-operated Predators or Reapers. Earlier this month, Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi admitted that the nighttime strikes were carried out by the US "because the Yemeni Air Force cannot carry out missions at night."

Today's drone strike is the second in Yemen in four days, and the third this month. In the last strike, on Oct. 18, the US killed Nadir Haider Nasser al Shaddadi and eight other fighters in an attack on a compound outside of Jaar in Abyan province.

On Oct. 4, the drones fired several missiles at a vehicle as it was traveling in the Maqbala area in Shabwa province, killing four "heavily armed" al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives. A Yemeni journalist who is closely tied to AQAP later reported that Sheikh Abu Zubeir 'Adil al'Abab, AQAP's senior sharia official and the fourth-most important leader in the group, was killed in that strike.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/us_drones_kill_4_aqa.php#ixzz2A1MtyQK4
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