A US drone strike killed at least two alleged AQAP militants on a motorcycle at Al Qawz junction, Mudiyah district of Abyan governorate, on the night of September 14th 2017. However it was also reported that a passing vehicle was damaged, causing civilian injuries.

More than three years later, in response to Airwars publishing its Yemen findings, CENTCOM confirmed that two civilians had been injured in the event.

A local security official and residents told Reuters at the time that three suspected militants were killed in the strike.  According to one source, this was also reported to Xinhua, though the original Xinhua report could not be found.

One Twitter source, @demolinari, instead suggested that two militants were killed in the strike, and named those killed as local AQAP leader Ali Saleh Al-Buhaith Al-Fathani and Haritha Al-Waqari.

@demolinari also reported that a passing vehicle was damaged, causing injuries.  As such, Airwars has assessed that at least one civilian was reportedly injured in the strike.

On November 5th 2020, CENTCOM confirmed that it had injured two civilians in this incident, noting that “Of the information AirWars provided, one strike on September 14, 2017, was assessed to have caused  injuries to two civilians.”

In its May 2018 annual civilian casualty report, the US Department of Defense stated that “there were credible reports of civilian casualties caused by U.S. military actions in Yemen against AQAP and ISIS during 2017”, but did not specify which specific actions these reports referred to.  Overall, the Department of Defense assessed that there were credible reports of “approximately 499 civilians killed and approximately 169 civilians injured during 2017”, as a result of US military actions in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

The incident occured during the night.