Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On August 7th 2012, up to four Al Qaeda militants were killed and two others injured in a suspected US airstrike in Al Qotn, Hadhramaut province. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.
A security official said that “a small pick-up truck was completely destroyed at the scene”, Xinhua reported. A picture posted by local-language Twitter user @hreeb2012 supposedly shows the burnt down car. According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle was travelling with four people, Siyasa Press reports. Mareb Press claimed that the car, a “Hilux”, was struck while in the Ghusais area and was loaded with ammunition and explosives. Local residents told Aden Al-Ghad that the strike was accompanied by a strong explosion.
The highest casualty account was provided by narrabyee which stated that four members of Al Qaeda were killed.
A tweet from @lebanondebate refer to the location of the strike as being in both “Zakika” and “Shaab Al Nahid” areas in the Cotton District.
The Yemeni Ministry of Defence described the attack as a raid that “targeted the two militants in a vehicle loaded with large quantities of explosive devices”, Yemen Times reported, without attributing the strikes. However, other sources attributed the airstrikes to the US, with other sources specifically referring to drones, including Xinhua.
The incident occured in the evening.
Summary
Sources (23) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
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Damage to a vehicle caused by airstrikes on August 7, 2012. (Image posted by Mareb Press)
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Damage to a vehicle caused by airstrikes on August 7, 2012. (Image posted by @hreeb2012)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention that the vehicle was targeted near the town of Qatn (قطن) in the Hadhramout (حضرموت) governorate. The coordinates for the town of Qatn (قطن) are: 15.8439922, 48.4583447. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.