On July 28th 2012 alleged Yemeni or US fighter jets bombed two suspected Al Qaeda hideouts in the Mahfad district of the Abyan Province with an unknown number of casualties as reported by Xinhua news who got their information from a local security official and a local resident.

The security official quoted by Xinhua news said: “It was not immediately clear if any of the Al Qaeda militants or some of their local leaders were killed in the air strikes. The bombing was in response to Wednesday’s Al Qaeda attack on pro-government checkpoints.”

A local resident said: “huge black [smoke] and fire erupted in one of the targeted compounds after military aircrafts fired some rockets on it” and that “[a]n abandoned Al Qaeda training site was also pounded in the air shelling”.

The attacks were attributed to Yemeni jets but its Air Force lacks the technical capability to carry out precision strikes. Therefore, US aircraft and armed drones may have been responsible.

This incident was identified by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and has been included in Airwars’ database even though no casualties are mentioned.

The local time of the incident is unknown.