(Previous Incident Code: YEM156 )

One civilian, aged 16, was reported killed in a suspected US drone strike on a car in Wadi Abida. Sources alleged the boy was driving a vehicle transporting AQAP militants who also died in the strike. Up to four people died overall when one or two vehicles were destroyed. The attack hit at night, suggesting it was a US drone strike – the Yemen Air Force is incapable of flying strike missions at night. Three missiles were reportedly fired on the vehicle, destroying it.

The dead were allegedly al Qaeda members though their identities were not clear. Local and international media reported alleged local al Qaeda commanders Mohammed Jabir al Shabwani and Abdullah Mubarak bin Hamad were killed in the strike. A local official told Turkish state news agency Andolu the strike killed Abbad Mubarak Jabir. However local tribesmen said Ebad al Shabwani died while driving the vehicle. The Yemen Times subsequently reported he was a 16-year old child. Brigadier Abdulkhaleq Mohammed Saleh, army operations director in Mareb, told the paper he was a militant ‘with suspected ties to al Qaeda’. Al Shabwani’s family denied this, adding the boy’s friends and family hadalso been targeted in drone strikes – including a friend Mujahid Jabir al Shabwani, killed on March 3rd (YEM164).