Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Alleged US drone strikes killed up to 12 Al Qaeda militants in a compound used for communications and meetings in the eastern part of the al-Mahfad area located in Abyan Province the evening of the 1st of June 2012. There are currently no reports of civilian harm.
Albashayer and CNN cited the lowest death toll as “at least ten”. Multiple local Twitter posts reported the attack and put the death toll at 11. Xinhua provided the highest death toll reporting “at least 12” Al Qaeda militants were killed.
A Yemeni confirmed to CNN Arabic that “the warplanes launched an air strike targeting a gathering of leaders from Al Qaeda”. Additionally, Reuters reported an “unmanned drone strike.” Xinhua posited that three missiles were fired onto the complex by the drone and that “the [Al Qaeda] compound was completely demolished in the attack along with some communication materials used by the terrorist group.”
Adengad and CNN noted that the militants were part of a sub-group named Ansar al-Sharia, and CNN added that “the “Ansar al-Sharia” group confirmed, in a statement, that the warplanes launched raids on separate areas in Abyan on Thursday and Friday, without causing any casualties.”
A source from the “Popular Committees” reported that foreigners were among those killed. Xinhua specified that three people from Somalia were amongst the foreigners killed after local residents informed them that: “For the first time, several foreigners were killed by the air strike.”
Adengad reported that the raids were “believed to be American” and Xinhua attributed the incident to US drones.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention that the airstrike targeted a compound used for communications and meetings by militants in the eastern parts of the town of Mahfad (المحفد) in the Abyan (أبين) governorate. The coordinates for the eastern part of the town are: 14.060537, 46.918367. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.