(Previous Incident Codes: YEM094USYEM108)

Alleged Yemeni or US airstrikes on July 4th 2012 in al-Mahfad, Abyan province reportedly killed between three and 13 Al Qaeda militants and injured up to seven militants. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.

Yemen Post, Naharnet, and Mareb Press reported that the raid was carried out against the position of Al Qaeda militants in the province of Abyan after their retreat from the cities of Zinjibaar and Jaar. Yemen Post claimed that as many as four strikes hit “suspected places and hideouts where [sic] Al Qaeda members sought shelter”.

The district official Yaslam al-Anburi of al-Mahfad said on Naharnet that three members of Al Qaeda were killed and seven injured. According to Mareb Press, 10 Al Qaeda members were killed in the attacks which was corroborated by the Twitter source @SuhailNews. Other local-language Twitter accounts including @anaalyemenii and @news_yemen reported the killing of 13 Al Qaeda militants.

The Yemen Defence Ministry took responsibility for the strikes, according to a Yemeni security source, who told United Press International (according to Mareb Press) that “the warplanes carried out 4 raids today targeting a gathering of so-called (Ansar al-Sharia) members”. However, given the limited capabilities of the Yemeni Air Force (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism), the confirmed missions of American strike jets over Yemen (Washington Post), and the alleged direct support of the US to the Yemeni army (Yemen Post), US involvement cannot be ruled out.