On the 20th of June 2012, up to 30 militants were reported killed and six others injured in a series of Yemeni or US-waged airstrikes in Mahfed, Abyan, which was later reported by international and local media.

AP reported that Yemeni military officials said that “at least six air raids targeted moving vehicles and Al Qaeda positions in Mahfad, the last stronghold of Al Qaeda in Abyan province.” According to the Yemeni defence minister, five militants were killed, including senior military leaders of Ansar al-Sharia, linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as reported by BBC. However, BBC also quoted a local official reporting “30 deaths in the Al Qaeda ranks”. Other news outlets report that the number of dead was somewhere in between 5 and 30. CNN quoted an official saying that 17 militants had died and that 6 were injured. There is therefore no agreement on how many have been injured or killed as a result of these strikes. Even though it cannot be ruled out, there are no reports of civilians being injured or killed in these strikes.

According to the BBC these strikes were conducted by Yemeni aircraft. Al Jazeera also reports that Yaslam al-Anburi, who is the mayor of Mahfed (located in the Abyan governorate), told AFP that the Yemeni Air Force was responsible for the multiple strikes. According to the mayor, the strikes were concentrated “mainly in the Wadi Dhiman and Dayda Valleys”. In what appears to have been another strike, Al Jazeera reported that “a tribal chief said three suspected fighters were killed and four wounded in an air raid targeting a group of al-Qaeda fighters in a desert region between Abyan and Shabwa provinces.” While there were no direct allegations against the US military, its involvement cannot be ruled out due to its announced military support to the Yemeni government. In the aftermath of the strike, Yemeni security officials also reported that weapons caches were found at the locations of the strikes.

CNN reached out to a security official who explained the rationale for the strikes. He stated that “Hundreds of militants escaped unharmed when government forces retook Zinjibar and Jaar towns. The current operation is to hunt those terrorists down, and today a big number of them were killed”. He spoke on the basis of anonymity since he was not at liberty to discuss the strike with the media. Yahoo News also reported that the strike was part of several week-long offensive which was aimed at uprooting the militants which had gained a foothold in the Abyan and Shabwa governorate after the uprising in 2011.

The local time of the incident is unknown.