(Previous Incident Code: YEM163 )

At least three alleged AQAP members were killed in a reported US drone strike on a vehicle in Wadi Abeeda – also the site of the previously reported strike. A local official told Xinhua, cited by news agency IANS, that the attack was carried out by a drone, and tribal sources confirmed this to Reuters and Xinhua. Reuters reported that at least three were killed in the attack, while Xinhua put the death toll at four. IANS, citing Xinhua, reported that tribal sources identified the vehicle as a ‘small pick-up’ belonging to Jafar al-Shabwani, described as a mid-level AQAP commander. His three companions were not named in the report.

The attack came as the Yemeni military continued its offensive against AQAP positions in the central and southern Yemeni provinces of Shabwa, Abyan and al Bayda. Yemeni journalist Farea al Muslimi called the campaign the ‘largest and most comprehensive attack led by the Yemeni army against al Qaeda’. The UN estimates more than 24,000 refugees have been displaced by the fighting, as of May 20. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Yemen Red Crescent have been providing humanitarian relief.

Days before, AQAP released a video describing the execution of four men who it said had helped target drone strikes by planting electronic chips in the cars of AQAP members. In the video, a man identified as Abi Islam Al-Muhajer, a member of AQAP’s ‘security department’, claimed: ‘The number of drone strikes has decreased in the six past months since Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed security and intelligence institutions accused of cooperating with the [U.S.] drone program targeting jihadists. Discovering the spies who install the electronic chips has decreased the opportunities for targeting Al-Qaeda affiliates.’