Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Alleged Al Qaeda local commander Abdullah Mehdar, suspected leader of the Al Qaeda cell in the Houta region, was reportedly killed by Yemen security forces, possibly with the assistance of US forces, on the evening of 12th January 2010 in Shabwa province, 375 miles east of Sana’a. There were no known associated reports of civilian harm.
Mehdar was tracked to a safe house in a mountainous region and killed, according to the Governor of Shabwa, Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi, who was quoted in a BBC report. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sanaa, Mohamed Val, said that “the government confirmed Mehdar was killed along with another fighter, and that three others escaped.” Several other men reportedly fled, while according to the Associated Press some were arrested. Multiple news outlets, including Voice of America and AP, wrote that four suspected Al Qaeda operatives were arrested in the raid on the house, with Emaratalyoum stating that two of them were wounded in the exchange of fire with the security forces.
Editor of the Yemen Post Hakim Almasmari told Voice of America that “Abdallah Mehdar was killed because he did not surrender.” Almasmari stated that “[Mehdar is] not one of the top Al Qaeda leaders but he is a member of Al Qaeda. The good thing is that there were no civilian casualties reported for the attack.” He also told the agency that the national security army “was trained by the US for terrorist combating”.
A local tribal leader Sheik Atiq Baadha challenged the view that Mehdar was part of AQAP saying that “[t]hey were young men who went astray, but I don’t think they were really members of Al Qaeda.” He warned that the death of Mehdar might lead to more militancy and sympathy for Al Qaeda.
There were no reports indicating US involvement in the specific operation at the time, although the US was reported to have trained Yemeni security forces and, according to Jeremy Scahill writing in the Nation on 30th March 2011, “by late January 2010, Joint Special Operations Command had been involved with more than two dozen ground raids in Yemen, which kicked off with the December 17 strikes.”
The incident occured during the night.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the governorate of Shabwa (شبوة), for which the generic coordinates are: 14.757069, 46.579406. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.