(Previous Incident Code: USYEM148a )

A suspected US drone strike killed Bahraini national Abdulnasser Talfat (Abu Jaafar Al-Bahraini) at an unknown location in Hadramout province on or before June 5, 2013, with no civilian harm currently reported.

On June 5, 2013, Flashpoint (@FlashpointIntel) quoted a Yemeni jihadist source “Bahraini national Abdulnasser Talfat (Abu Jaafar Al-Bahraini) has been killed by a US drone strike in Hadramawt, Yemen.” The report did not specify the time or a more precise location of the strike.

No known source confirmed the strike or the identity of the victim.

Contemporaneous reports described an attack by the Yemeni army against AQAP in the Gail Bawazir area, Hadramout province. The 27th Brigade attempted an operation against AQAP sites but were ambushed by AQAP militants. Between three and five soldiers were killed, including the commander of the operation, Colonel Ghaleb Al-Mansour. Another 10 or 11 soldiers were wounded during a half hour encounter before the remaining soldiers were rescued by armored units, supported by planes which bombed a number of targets in nearby farms. It is unclear if this confrontation is the one in which Abdulnasser was killed.

Reuters reported “several” militants were killed in the battle, while Mareb Press claimed seven militants killed and further specified the presence of “leaders” among the dead. However, only the casualties from the drone strike are included in this assessment.