Three drone strikes taking place on August 1st 2011, allegedly by US drones or Yemeni airplanes, killed up to 16 suspected Al Qaeda fighters and wounded up to 32 others in various areas of Zinjibar according to military officials. One report stated that the drones were acting in conjunction with the Yemeni government, but the Yemen Interior Minister said all attacks were carried out by the Yemeni army and the United States was not involved. There are currently no known reports of civilian harm.
There were a series of conflicting reports concerning the strike, as Fahd Othman Aljebzi tweeting as @Aljebzi noted that thirteen individuals were killed, which was supported by a tweet from @AdenLang citing a Reuters report. Albawaba.com reported that a military source told Agence France-Presse that Al Qaeda leader Nader al-Shaddadi was among the possible 16 alleged militants. However, al-Shaddadi was reportedly killed on October 18, 2012 in US drone or Yemeni airstrikes (USYEM131-B).
Local sources noted as many as thirty-two people wounded. Yusra A tweeting as @YusraAIA noted that apparently sixteen suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed and another seventeen wounded over the course of three strikes, while Aljazeera reported that Yemeni government airstrikes killed fifteen suspected Al-Qaeda operatives and destroyed a tank controlled by militants.
Multiple sources, including Albawaba, reported that “the raid destroyed an army armored vehicle, truck, personnel carrier and artillery that Al Qaeda militants had seized during the previous battles.”
The Washington Post identified the locations of the three strikes: “The security and local officials said the first strike targeted the al-Wahdah stadium and surrounding areas. They said it destroyed military equipment that the militants seized during a June 30 battle to control the stadium in which dozens of soldiers and militants were killed. They said the second strike hit the al-Amodiah region between Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan taken over by militants in May, and the city of Jaar. The third attack hit the al-Khamilah area, which the militants also use as a hideout.” Reports that Al-Khamleh and Al-Amudiyah were also struck was corroborated by Elaph, Lebanese Forces, and Radio Sawa. None of the sources specify how many militants were killed in each individual strike.
In an article for The Washington Post, Mohammad Al-Qadhi reported that Yemeni local and security officials claimed the strikes stemmed from US Predator drones, yet Reuters reported that Yemeni warplanes conducted at least one of the strikes, on the village of Al Khamila. Bill Roggio, writing for Long War Journal, reported that unmanned US Predator or Reaper drones carried out the strike, but Yemeni Interior Minister denied that claim. Writing in August 2011, Roggio said the US had carried out ten strikes since December of 2009 and four since May of 2011.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
