On the evening of Wednesday April 11th 2012, an airstrike allegedly by Yemeni forces or US drone strikes which hit a car with suspected Al Qaeda militants killed between two and fourteen militants and injuring between seven and 10 others, near the town of Lawder in the Abyan governorate, an area on a key highway that links an Al Qaeda stronghold in Zinjibar with other provinces where the group is also active. The vehicle was claimed to be a Yemeni military truck reported stolen in previous clashes according to Press TV. There are currently no reports of civilian harm.

Most sources, such as Press TV, Fox News, and The Hill reported twelve casualties, while Xinhua accounted for fourteen killed belligerents. Numerous twitter accounts, including @anaalyemenii @SUHFNET_YE, published almost the same tweet reporting two Al Qaeda operatives killed.

The attack was confirmed by the Yemeni Minister of Defence the same day on the website, reporting twelve casualties among militants of Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who called themselves Ansar al-Sharia, two of which were local leaders named Dardish Ahmed Mohammed Taher and Imad al-Manshaby. This information was also reported by Fox News, Almasdar Online, Yemen Post, and Akhbaria Net, and Fox News also reported that Saudis, Somalis and a Pakistani were among the casualties.

Almasdar Online quoted a statement from Ansar al-Sharia that two members of the group were killed and seven others were wounded on April 11th, 2012.

Sources were conflicted as to whether the Yemeni military or US forces were responsible for the attack, with a local government official telling Xinhua that a US drone carried out the strikes while tweets from @anaalyemenii and @_alakwa blamed the Yemeni government.

The attack was part of a series of clashes in the area that lasted days between Yemeni armed forces with local tribesmen against Al-Qaeda, allegedly causing numerous losses with Akhbaria Net reporting at least forty on the day of the strike that the belligerent group denied, claiming only seven militants had been killed.

The incident occured in the evening.

As many as 43 ‘suspected Al Qaeda militants’ were killed and dozens of others were wounded in alleged US drone strikes and/or Yemeni air and artillery strikes in the Al Harur area of Lahj and Abyan governorates between 1-3 April 2012.

The strikes were part of continuous raids by joint Yemeni land, sea, and air forces according to local officials. A number of Yemen officials confirmed US involvement, with one local official claiming that “The U.S. is involved in a number of the latest attacks, but that does not mean our air force is not in control of the raids occurring.” He said that the US “has taken part in three of the airstrikes, but said Yemen’s air force is leading the operation. He did not detail the type of support provided,” according to CNN. Another local security claimed U.S. drones were in support of the continuous Yemeni raids, but did not further elaborate on its role in the raids.

It is unclear whether U.S. or Yemeni military forces were primarily responsible for the suspected militants deaths. According to several Yemeni security officials, at least six suspected Al Qaeda militants were killed by Yemeni artillery shelling on 1 or 2 April 2012, and another 16 militants were killed in Zinjibar by “missiles descended from the sea”, although this might be the same incident a few weeks earlier where naval strikes also killed 16 militants in Zinjibar (USYEM051-B).

France24 reported on April 3rd that over the last 48 hours, 38 Al Qaeda members had been killed in bombings and raids and Yemen Post added that dozens were wounded, quoting local security sources. Mulkalla Star provided the highest casualty estimate – 43 militants were killed in airstrikes, specifically attributed to the Yemeni army, after heavy air bombardment which lasted for three days. Al Masdar Online quoted AFP who reported that a group leader named Abu Bilal, a Somali national, was among the militants killed.

The local time of the incident is unknown.