Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A US drone strike targeted alleged AQAP militants in Bi’ir Shoudqa, Wadi Obeida area of Marib governorate, on June 28th 2018, a single source (@huodhoud) claimed.
At around the same time, Yemeni sources began reporting that an alleged AQAP jurist, Abu Bihr Mohammed Darama, was killed by a US drone strike. It is unlikely Darama’s death in Marib had resulted from an earlier confirmed US drone strike on June 23rd, since they took place in either Shabwah, Hadramawt or Al-Bayda governorate.
Dr Elisabeth Kendall (@Dr_E_Kendall) tweeted that Daram frequently wrote for Al Qaeda’s newspaper al-Masra, but rarely in formal AQAP channels. Further sources, such as @IbnSiqilli, described Darama as a judge in Abyan. None described him as a combatant.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (8) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (5) [ collapse]
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Abu Bishr Muhammad Darama, an alleged AQAP jurist, was reportedly killed by a US drone strike, though it the exact circumstances and timing of the strike were unclear (@Dr_E_Kendall, June 28th 2018)
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No sources explicitly indicated that Darama was a combatant (SITE Intel Group, June 28th 2018)
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention the Bi’ir Shoudqa (بئر شودقة), possibly a well located in or in the vicinity of the Wadi Obeida (وادي عبيدة) area, east of the city of Ma’rib (مأرب). Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Wadi Obeida are: 15.515556, 45.395278.