Geolocation
Airwars assessment
An alleged US drone strike that took place on Wadi Hassan, south Zinjibar was reported to kill up to eight militants, with no civilian harm reported, on August 25th 2011.
Eight suspected Al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in the airstrike. Multiple sources named a local Al Qaeda leader Abu Jaber al Sanaai as killed in the strike.
Critical threats also named three other militants – Ahmed Saleh Farhan bin Jalal, Hamza Saleh Hamza bin Jarullah, and Mohamed bin Mubarak Mohamed bin Jarullah – from the Ma’rib governorate as also being killed in the alleged strike.
The militants were reportedly members of Ansar al-Sharia, or ‘supporters of Islamic Sharia’, a group linked to al Qaeda.
France24 reported that up to 14 militants had been alleged to be killed in airstrikes over the 24th and 25th of August in South Zinjibar, which includes USYEM027-B and USYEM028-B.
Local residents claimed that the strike had been carried out by US drones. France24 added that the CIA director Leon Panetta “said his country was carrying out anti-terrorism operations in Yemen.”
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (4) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the are of Wadi Hassan (وادي حسان), south-east of Zinjibar (زنجبار), for which the generic coordinates are: 13.128141, 45.448983. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.