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On Monday, a Yemeni and US air campaign killed at least 68 al-Qaeda members in an attempt to one-up al-Qaeda’s local affiliate. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been connected to several failed terror plots against the US, and its leader had made a rare appearance in a recent video, in which he promised to attack Western “crusaders … everywhere in the world.”
A top Yemeni official said that the “unprecedented” air campaign, conducted during the weekend, came after “information that al-Qaida was plotting attacks on vital installations, military and security, as well as foreign interests in Yemen”. The Interior Ministry reported that the intensive air raids on al-Qaeda bases in the mountains of Abyan province killed 55 militants, including 3 local chiefs, on Sunday. According to local sources, more than 30 people have been killed near the town Al-Mahfad in the air raids.
The Interior Ministry said that the raids lasted for several hours, adding that “terrorists of Arab and foreign nationalities are among the dead and are in the process of being identified”. A top official said Yemeni MiG-29 jet fighters were involved in the raid, which, according to locals, involved unmanned drones as well. The US is the only country which operates drones in Yemen, but US officials don’t acknowledge the existence of a covert drone program.
On Sunday, a drone strike reportedly killed 3 militants, one of them thought to be a senior commander, when a strike blew up an off-road vehicle in the Shabwa province. Witnesses confirmed that the vehicle was destroyed and that the bodies of the three individuals in the vehicle were completely charred in the strike, adding that commandos swooped in shortly after the attack to retrieve the bodies. On Saturday, the Saba news agency reported that 3 civilians and 10 al-Qaeda suspects were killed in a drone strike in the Baida province. It could not confirm who carried out the strike in its report.
