(Previous Incident Code: YEM164 )

At least five alleged AQAP members were killed when their vehicle or convoy of vehicles was hit by several missiles fired by a US drone either late on June 13 (Reuters) or on June 14 (Associated Press, Xinhua). The men included local resident and reportedly ‘leading AQAP figure’ Musaed al Habshi al Barasi al Awlaqi (aka Musaad al Habashi), and Reuters quoted local tribesmen saying the dead included two unnamed Saudis. The Long War Journal noted that al Habashi’s ‘role in AQAP is unclear’ and that AQAP has not acknowledged the death.

The province’s deputy governor, Sheikh Nasser al Malish, said ‘the suspected drone strike‘ targeted alleged AQAP militants in a sparsely populated, mountainous area and did not cause any civilian casualties. Xinhua put the number of dead at ‘about six’. ‘A US unmanned aircraft fired missiles at a two-vehicle convoy of the al-Qaida gunmen in al-Saeed rugged region of Shabwa, killing about six terrorists inside the travelling cars,’ an anonymous military official told Xinhua.