(Previous Incident Codes: YEM134 USYEM153 )

At least four alleged AQAP militants were allegedly killed by US drones in Wadi Abeeda in Marib province on August 6, 2013. The strikes were reportedly a sequence of attacks intended to disrupt an impending AQAP attack. The strike hit the day Yemen announced its security forces had disrupted an AQAP plot to attack oil infrastructure.

The sources differ on the exact number of those killed. AP mentions four killed, yet some local sources state that 6 alleged militants got killed. The men were killed when as many as five to six missiles hit their “Hilux” vehicle as they drove through the central province of Marib in the early hours. All men in the car were Yemeni and the attack ‘turned [the vehicle] into a ball of fire‘, a tribal source told AFP. Two of the killed, Saleh al Tays al Waeli and Saleh Ali Guti (aka Saleh Jouti), were reportedly senior AQAP leaders. Al Waeli featured on a list of 25 wanted AQAP operatives released by the Yemeni government.

The militants planned to destroy essential hydrocarbon infrastructure: oil and gas pipelines and the Canadian-run Mina al Dhaba oil terminal on the Arabian Sea coast. AQAP reportedly intended either to take control of the terminal or failing to snatch foreign experts as hostages. A nearby oil derivatives export facility was also a target and AQAP was planning to seize Hadramout’s provincial capital, Mukalla. US drones continued to strike after Yemeni security forces reportedly foiled Al Qaeda’s plans.

The Washington Post reported that US officials said that “the Obama administration authorized a series of drone strikes in Yemen over the past 10 days as part of an effort to disrupt an Al Qaeda terrorism plot that has forced the closure of American embassies around the world.” However, the article did not specify which dates the strikes occurred on.