Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Three militants, reportedly members of Al Qaeda, were killed and six more wounded in a suspected US airstrike or drone strike on Shaqra, east of Zinjibar, on October 27th, 2011, sources said. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.
The strike reportedly hit alleged militants in Shaqra, east of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan in southern Yemen. According to Reuters, the town had been seized by Islamists in August of the same year, a few months before the strike, and a local official told AFP that “the militant group has been carrying out military training exercises in the area, adding that near-by residents had reported sounds of gunfire and explosions in recent days”. Local officials told Reuters that the strike killed three Al Qaeda fighters and injured six.
Alarabiya News also reported that the strike killed three Al Qaeda fighters and wounded six. The source reported that the Yemeni government “denied direct U.S. involvement in the fight against Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch,” but that local residents and officials insisted that U.S. drones regularly carry out strikes in the area. @Wassm3, @4adencom, and @yosfgfx reported that 3 Al Qaeda fighters were killed by an “American” strike.
@AdenLang reported that the strike impacted the “poultry area” in Shaqra.
None of the sources reported that civilians were harmed. At least one source referred to “an unmanned aircraft, likely American” being used to carry out the strike.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Shaqra (شقرة), for which the generic coordinates are: 13.356639, 45.699426. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.