Airwars assessment
One local-language social-media source, @HAlwlaqi, suggested that at least one US drone strike had targeted “Islah terrorist militia” camps in Marib, including in the “third regional command”, apparently overnight from August 28th-29th 2019. Another, @muneeffaisal1, stated at around the same time that a US drone had targeted a “military convoy” in Marib, possibly referring to the same alleged event. There was no available information on alleged casualties, nor were there any known associated reports of civilian harm.
Two further social-media sources, @bnt_aljnoob4 and @Glesreeen, indicated that a claimed US strike had destroyed a weapons store in Marib, but comments suggested that video provided by these sources was older than the alleged strike.
The claimed attack came amid an Emirati air campaign in southern Yemen from August 28th to August 29th 2019, apparently in support of secessionist militias, which reportedly focused on Aden and the Abyan governorate. In a statement, the Emirati foreign ministry said that strikes targeted “terrorist militias”, though others indicated that the strikes were targeting the pro-government Yemeni military. AQAP militants have been previously reported to have fought alongside, and sometimes integrated into, Yemeni government forces.
Given that the sources describing a possible US strike were extremely vague, and given that the alleged strike came alongside the Emirati air campaign, this event has been assessed as “contested” by Airwars.
On October 4th 2019, a US Central Command spokesperson told New America that no US military strikes had been conducted in Yemen since June 24th 2019. It is, however, possible that an undeclared strike was conducted by the CIA, or was part of a clandestine US military action.
The incident occured during the night.
Summary
Sources (19) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (3) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention the Ma’rib (مارب) governorate, for which the generic coordinates are: 15.508089, 45.562719. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
United States Armed Forces Assessment:
Original strike reports
On October 4, 2019, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) replied to an email inquiry from New America confirming that “the last strike conducted by CENTCOM in Yemen was 24 June.” Per that statement, there were no CENTCOM strikes in Yemen in September 2019.
The lack of strikes in September makes it more than three months since the last U.S. military counterterrorism strike in Yemen, according to New America’s research. However, it is possible that the United States has conducted covert non-military strikes, and in recent years there have been a small number of strikes attributed by media reports to the United States that CENTCOM has denied conducting