(Previous Incident Codes: YEM131 USYEM150 )

An alleged US night-time strike on two or three vehicles travelling in a convoy reportedly killed between four and nine alleged militants and injured three others in Wadi Dayqad in the al Mahfad district of Abyan province on July 27, 2023.

Four anonymous Yemeni officials told CNN the strike was carried out by a US drone. Residents described hearing loud explosions, and some told Reuters they believed the dead belonged to AQAP-linked group Ansar al Sharia. According to local media the strike killed Araf Mohammed Nassir Lakrai, the 25 year old cousin of AQAP al Mahfad district commander Ali Lakrai.’

“A night drone strike targeted two cars of Al Qaeda militants in Wadi Dhiqa in Mahfad, killing the six people inside them,” a local official told AFP. Xinhua reported that people attempting to pull bodies from the wreckage may have been attacked: ‘in an initial strike, one rocket hit the moving convoy, killing six Al Qaeda militants. When people rushed to the scene to rescue the wounded, two more rockets came, killing two militants and injuring three others,’ according to residents.

Local media reported that eight died, and an anonymous security source claimed the dead included bomb maker Ibrahim al Asiri. He was described earlier in the week by Time as ‘the world’s most dangerous terrorist’. A senior counter-terrorism official told the magazine: ‘He’s the main guy. He’s the top of any list.’ Al Asiri is described as the planner behind numerous attacks on the US, including the 2009 underwear bomber, the printer cartridge plot and a gruesome attempt to kill the Saudi security chief by concealing a bomb inside his brother, 23-year-old Abdullah al Asiri, who posed as a defecting militant. Star Tribune reported that while al Asiri was the target, he was not among the militants killed.