Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

USYEMTr070

Incident date

April 5–6, 2017

Location

مديرية الصومعة, Al Sawma'ah District, Al Bayda, Yemen

Geolocation

14.207644, 45.815614 Note: The accuracy of this location is to District level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A US drone strike reportedly killed alleged AQAP militant Khattab al-Wuhayshi and possibly his bodyguard in Mar’taa, in the Suma’a district of Bayda governorate, overnight from April 5th to April 6th 2017. There were no known associated reports of civilian harm.

Multiple sources, including AFP, reported that Khattab al-Wuhayshi was killed while riding a motorbike in the area, and that he was the nephew of AQAP leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who was also killed in a US drone strike in June 2015.

According to Xinhua, an anonymous security source indicated that the strike also killed a second AQAP militant, the bodyguard of al-Wuhayshi, though no other sources reported this.

This reported event took place amid a dramatic intensification of US operations against AQAP, beginning in early March 2017.  On April 3rd, Pentagon spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said that, since February 28th 2017, 70 US airstrikes were conducted in Yemen.

The incident occured during the night.

Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]

Reports of the incident mention the village of Marta’a  (مرتعه), within the Al Sawma’ah district (مديرية الصومعة), for which due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Al Sawma’ah district are: 14.207644, 45.815614.

  • Reports of the incident mention the village of Marta’a  (مرتعه), within the Al Sawma’ah district (مديرية الصومعة).

    Imagery:
    Google Earth

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    1–2

Sources (31) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (4) [ collapse]

  • Khattab al-Wuhayshi, an alleged AQAP militant, was reportedly killed by a US drone strike while travelling on a motorbike in Suma'a (@Dr_E_Kendall, April 6th 2017)

US Forces Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • US Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    1–2

Sources (31) [ collapse]