(Previous Incident Codes: YEM082USYEM094)

On June 7th 2012, there were reports that Yemeni or US warplanes conducted an airstrike against a vehicle carrying suspected Al Qaeda militants on the desert road between Ja’ar and Zinjibar in Abyan province. According to anonymous officials and an anonymous military source speaking to local and international media, three to five of the passengers were killed and up to three other suspected militants were injured.

Nashwan news quoted a military source claiming that five suspected Al Qaeda militants were killed and three injured in the airstrike. They also cited another source said that the strike “was carried out on a site where the terrorists are located in Jabal Sarar in the Darajaj area, east of Jaar, where a car was destroyed and burned, and the terrorists were killed, and a mortar cannon was destroyed in the same place”. It is unclear if this report documents  a separate incident, as it mentions east of Jaar rather than between Jaar and Zinjibar.

Witnesses speaking to Xinhua described the vehicle as a pick up truck that was hit as it passed through a desert road between Jaar and Zinjibar. “The Al Qaeda vehicle was loaded with heavy weapons before it was bombed, causing a huge explosion at the area,” the witnesses told Xinhua.

Xinhua and Nashwan News attributed the airstrikes to the Yemeni military. However, the Yemeni Air Force reportedly lacked the capability to hit moving vehicles at this time.