Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Three Al Qaeda members were killed and six others were wounded by alleged US or Yemeni airstrikes on the town of Shaqra on May 17, 2012. There were no reports of civilian harm.
Yemen News Network tweeted from @YemenNews that warplanes struck two tanks captured by Al Qaeda in Arquob, west of Shaqra. The warplanes were believed to be Yemeni. @YenNews1 reported that warplanes bombed an Al Qaeda checkpoint in Shaqra, and this story was supported by @ahrar_tagheer who noted both dead and wounded at a checkpoint strike and @TaizCity which noted the same. The latter again mentioned warplanes but did not attribute these planes to either Yemen or the United States.
Evan Kohlmann offered a more specific report at @IntelTweet, noting that Abdel Elah bin Mustafa al-Shehri, a twenty-year old Saudi national, had been killed by a U.S. drone strike. No other report corroborated this, and this tweet may have been referring to an earlier strike.
Associated Press reported a single ‘Yemeni warplane’ struck a checkpoint in Shaqra in Abyan province. Three alleged militants were killed and six wounded, the agency said.
Given that CNN had reported US strikes on the same town the previous day, this may also have been a US action.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the town of Shaqra (شقرة) in the Abyan (أبين) governorate. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for the town of Shaqra (شقرة) are: 13.356639, 45.699426.