(Previous Incident Code: YEMT051)

A reported US airstrike in Rawdah, Shabwa governorate, on the evening of March 29th 2017 killed at least one alleged AQAP militant. There are no known associated reports of civilian harm.

According to a majority of sources, the strike took place in the centre of Rawdah, near the village of Majazah, targeting a motorbike. Al Araby reported that three missiles hit a motorbike “in a side street” of Rawdah.

Other sources suggested that a car carrying AQAP militants was instead targeted, killing as many as “dozens of people” according to one source, Ababil. However, apparent photographic evidence from the scene only showed a destroyed motorbike. As such, the maximum number of belligerent casualties from this strike has been set at one.

This reported event took place amid a dramatic intensification of US operations against AQAP beginning in early March 2017. On April 3rd, Pentagon spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said that, from February 28th to the final week of March, 50 US airstrikes were conducted in Yemen.