Geolocation
Airwars assessment
According to local and international media, on October 21st 2012 at around 8pm, a suspected US airstrike struck a Prado car, in the Hami and Al Damashqa area in the Obeida valley around 17km east of the city of Ma’arib, carrying three to four suspected Al Qaeda militants, killing everyone in the car. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.
Yemen Press quoted local sources confirmed that a drone had killed at least four suspected Al Qaeda militants in the Obeida valley, including two Al Qaeda leaders. They reportedly heard four explosions, believed to be from the missiles “fired by the plane, adding that another car, believed to be tracking Al Qaeda militants, arrived at the scene of the accident and retrieved the bodies of the victims and took them to an unknown location.” The same sources reported to Yemen Press that there “is unconfirmed news indicating that “Sanad Eidan Al-Aqili” was killed in the operation.” Sanad Eidan Al-Aqili is the brother of a former leader in Al Qaeda, Hassan Al-Aqiliin Al-Qaeda, who was killed in Abyan governorate months before.
AFP also reported that local Al Qaeda commander Sanad Ouraidan al Aqili (aka Sanad Abdulla al Aqili) was among the dead. “Aqili’s three companions, whose bodies were blown to pieces, have not been identified yet,” a local policeman told AFP. Tribal sources in Ubaidah explained to the Al-Madina News that they “heard successive explosions, believed to be from missiles fired by the plane, noting that other Al Qaeda elements “rushed to the place and recovered the bodies that they could not determine the number or identity of their owners.”
AFP also quoted an unnamed tribal source as saying that “An unmanned aircraft fired a missile at a car in which four Al Qaeda operatives were traveling, which led to the burning of the car and the killing of those in it” and that “the attack took place on Sunday evening, 17 km east of the city of Ma’rib.”
Almotamar News also reported al-Aqili’’s death as a result of the strike. On Twitter, the Journalist Secretary of Ma’arib tweeted that three killed in the strike were foreign and that one was Yemeni: Saad al-Aqili. CNN also recieved information from a source saying that it was likely that Sanad Arifan Al-Aqili was killed in the strike.
A security source told CNN that a plane “launched an attack on a vehicle that was carrying a group of Al Qaeda militants in the Al-Batha area in Wadi Ubaida,” indicating that four were killed in the attack against a group of “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” leaders. The former jihadist, Tariq Al-Fadhli, revealed in a television interview that Wadi Ubaidah “is the main place for transferring spoils and financing Al Qaeda.
The incident occured at 20:00:00 local time.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention that a car was targeted in the Hami and Al Damashqa area in the Obeida valley (الحرقان عبيدة), around 17km east of the city of Ma’arib (مَأْرِب). Airwars was unable to locate Hami or Al Damashqa, however, the generic coordinates for the area 17km east of Ma’rib, in Obeida valley, are: 15.569758, 45.443000.
Summary
Sources (28) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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Damage caused by alleged US airstrikes on October 21, 2012. (Image posted by almotamar)