(Previous Incident Codes: YEM044USYEM050)

One civilian was reported injured and eight militants were killed in alleged Yemeni or US airstrikes carried out on the city of Jaar on March 18th 2012, in the governorate of Abyan. According to an Associated Press (AP) report published in the Washington Times, the civilian was injured when a post office being used as a temporary hospital was hit during the airstrikes.

The airstrikes on Jaar were part of a series of other missile strikes carried out against Al Qaeda positions throughout the province of Abyan including strikes on Zinjibar, the capital city of the governorate.

One witness told Xinhua that several residential buildings were damaged in the airstrikes, including four houses in the centre of Jaar which were “demolished”. However, Al Arabiya reported that while civilians in the city of Jaar were forced to flee their homes, “there were no immediate reports of people killed.”

Whilst the airstrikes were initially reported as having been conducted by Yemeni aircraft, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has cast doubt on this fact. The investigation found that the Yemeni Air Force (YAF) was decrepit and inadequate and “had not been functioning in ages” mainly due to endemic corruption, according to a Yemeni analyst. Additionally, at least one source, including a tweet from @sowtalthowra, referred to the strikes as coming from the sea, and we know there was reportedly at least one US warship in the region at the time.