(Previous Incident Codes: YEM140 USYEM160 )

A suspected US drone strike destroyed a vehicle in Manasseh, in al Bayda province between midnight and 2 AM, August 30 2013, killing at least three and as many as six suspected militants including AQAP senior leader Qaid Ahmad Nasser al Dhahab and his bodyguard al Hamdani, and injuring two others, with no civilian harm currently reported.

Eyewitnesses told Akhbar al Yom that US drones attacked a vehicle with five missiles as it stood in the yard of the Manasseh school, while Qaid had left the vehicle and was standing several metres away. Qaid and his escorts inside the vehicle were killed instantly by the strike. As many as three nearby AQAP suspects attempted to rescue the men inside the vehicle and were all killed by a follow-up strike, possibly delivered from a second drone. Xinhua News did not elaborate on the details of the so-called “double-tap” strike and counted only three dead. Al Masdar alleged a total of six militants were killed. CNN reported a total of eight missiles were fired by two drones in the attack.

Akhbar al Yom alleged at least two more people were wounded by the initial strike but did not provide their names or specify whether they were militants. No known sources have yet reported that civilians were harmed by the strike.

Multiple sources corroborated the death of Qaid Ahmad Nasser al Dhahab. At the time of his death Qaid was known as the leading figure of AQAP in al Bayda province, a veteran of the organisation’s operations in Iraq who acted as both a spiritual and military leader. Xinhua News identified two of the deceased as his bodyguards. Akhbar al Yom identified one of those killed by the first of the two strikes by the surname al Hamdani. CNN alleged that two of those killed in the strike were leaders in AQAP.

Local sources told Al Masdar that a wedding was held for “Qaid”, and his three brothers, “Abdul-Ilah, Abdul-Raouf and Sultan” a few hours before the strike.

This was not the first time Qaid or his family had been targeted by US strikes. His brother Tareq was reportedly targeted by US drones in January 2012 and was later murdered in February 2012 by his half-brother Hizam, with the alleged involvement of Yemeni intelligence. After Tareq’s death Qaid was reported to be the preeminent leader of AQAP in al Bayda province. Akhbar al Yom reported Qaid had lost his right hand in Abyan province early in 2012. He survived one strike with his brother Nabil in May 2012, and was rumoured to have been killed in another strike in January 2013. He was reportedly injured in a strike and disappeared for a number of months, but it is not clear whether this injury was the aforementioned dismemberment, nor exactly when the injury occurred. His half-brother Abdulraouf was allegedly targeted either by US drones or jets in September 2012; that attack destroyed a minivan killing 12 civilians, including three children. Tareq, Qaid, and Nabil were brothers-in-law to Anwar al Awlaki, the US citizen killed by drones in Yemen in September 2011.

Xinhua News reported al Dhahab reached a tenuous deal with the Yemeni government earlier in the year to stop fighting government soldiers in return for halting airstrikes, according to government officials and tribal mediators. A local official told Nashwan News that “armed elements of Al Qaeda deployed after announcing the killing of their leader in their whereabouts, and considered his killing a violation of the armistice with the authority.”

The US has not commented publicly on this strike but was the only belligerent known to operate drones in the region at the time.