(Previous Incident Codes: YEM121 USYEM137 )

Between two and nine Al Qaeda members were killed and three to five more were wounded in an alleged US drone strike on Nakhla on January 21, 2023. There were varying identifications of the dead. Ahmed al Ziadi, an alleged Al Qaeda commander in Marib province, died of his wounds “hours later”. Ali al Ghulaisi, spokesperson to the governor of Marib, identified three of the dead as Ali Salih al Dawlah, Qasim Bin Saleh al Dawlah and Bandar al Sanaani, all youths. However, AFP’s unnamed source identified two of the dead as Qasem Naser Tuaiman and Ali Saleh Tuaiman. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.

Qasem Naser Tuaiman and Ali Saleh Tuaiman were reportedly imprisoned a year before their death for joining Al Qaeda. However AFP’s sources alleged they rejoined the militant group on their release. The Yemeni defence ministry said four were killed in the strike but would not say who was responsible. In February 2014 Associated Press interviewed Yemeni woman Abeer al Hassani who told the agency two of her brothers were killed in drone strikes. Older brother Bandar al Hassani died on January 20 (USYEM145-B) and younger brother Abdel Meguid al Hassani, 20, reportedly died in this attack. He had been arrested and detained by the Yemeni security services in 2009. He was reportedly held for three years “often in a cell with hardened militant fighters”. Before his incarceration he reportedly loved dancing – not so after he was released in 2012, Abeer said, adding: “He only spoke about how much he wanted to blow himself up in the middle of Yemeni soldiers.” Abeer pleaded with him to stay at home. But he left to join his brother Bandar with Al Qaeda in Marib province. From there he reportedly went to Jawf province for training.

One local resident, Ra’ed Fadl Abdullah, said when the missiles were launched, the first missed its target but the second struck a car. Local sources described the bodies of the targets as burned severely and “scattered into small pieces”.

Sources said the strike killed at least two men driving on the Sanaa-Marib highway. Witnesses told Reuters a US drone targeted the vehicle northeast of the capital. Security officials said three people were injured in the strike, two seriously, while Yemen Post reported that two individuals were killed but five were wounded. The Yemeni Ministry of Defense released a report from local sources in the Ma’rib Governate that four suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in an air strike on January 21st.  Yemen’s Ministry of Interior announced the air strike had eliminated seven “terrorist elements” while other local statements noted as many as nine people had been killed in three separate raids carried out by what were described as American drones.

Ali al Ghulaisi, spokesman for the Marib governor, confirmed US drones carried out the strike, telling the Yemen Observer: “All killed were Al Qaeda militants.”