(Previous Incident Code: YEM201 )

Local officials said US drones destroyed a vehicle carrying alleged al Qaeda members from Mukalla, the group’s stronghold in the eastern province of Hadramout.

One of the dead was identified as Ahmed al Kazimi, a local AQAP commander.

The attack hit overnight and targeted suspected al Qaeda members, demonstrating this was a US drone strike. It could have been a Saudi Arabian air force attack – also capable of carrying out precision strikes. However, while it had been bombing Yemen for more than four months, its campaign appeared to have ignored AQAP in the east of the country. The US had consistently targeted AQAP suspects in vehicles in south-eastern Yemen in 2015.