Geolocation
Airwars assessment
An alleged US or Yemeni airstrike, naval bombardment, or drone strike killed 10 militants in an Al Qaeda hideout 70 kilometers away from Zinjibar in Shaqra, a southern town in the province of Abyan. There are currently no reports of civilian harm.
The Associated Press reported Yemeni warplanes bombed an Al Qaeda hideout 70km from Zinjibar, killing at least 10 militants, and that this is one of multiple strikes that occurred on the same day, allegedly killing a total of 16 militants stated in this incident and USYEM080-B. The Defense Ministry corroborated this total death toll on their website 26Sep.net. AFP reports that two of the alleged militants killed were from Saudi Arabia and one was Egyptian.
Due to the telephone lines being cut, AFP could not verify the death toll.
American drones have been involved in the campaign against Al Qaeda making it unclear whether the strike was carried out by Yemen or the US. Agence France-Press noted that the strikes against militants were undertaken with “U.S. logistical support”. Aden al-Ghad reported that US drones and missiles were launched in the area of Abyan from warships against prominent Al Qaeda leaders, specifying that a “one of the rockets landed at a checkpoint of the armed groups located at the top of Jabal Al-Arqoub, but there was no information about casualties”, although it is unclear if that references any of the incidents Airwars tracked on this day. It is therefore unclear whether the attack was an airstrike, naval bombardment or a drone strike.
A militant leader named al-Muhajir was named as one of the militants killed later on but it is unclear whether he perished in this incident or in USYEM080-B.
The incident occured in the afternoon.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Shaqra (شُقرة) in the province of Abyan (أبين). Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for the town of Shaqra (شُقرة) are: 13.356639, 45.699426.