7 Qaeda members killed in Yemen drone strikes
Seven suspected Al Qaeda members have been killed in US drone strikes in central Yemen
ADEN (AFP) - Seven suspected Al Qaeda members have been killed in drone strikes in central Yemen that were probably carried out by US forces, security sources said on Sunday.
A security official, asking not to be identified, said three "armed fighters of Al Qaeda" died when their vehicle was struck on Saturday in the Sawmaa region of Al-Bayda province.
Another drone strike on Saturday in the same region killed three suspected jihadists who were riding a motorcycle, and on Friday a drone strike killed a local military instructor for Al Qaeda in the same province, another security source said.
The United States, which considers the extremist group s Yemen-based franchise, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), to be its most dangerous, is the only force operating drones over Yemen.
But it only sporadically reports on a long-running bombing campaign against AQAP.
Al Qaeda and the Islamic State jihadist group have exploited a power vacuum created by the two-year-old conflict in Yemen between the government and Shiite Huthi rebels, especially in the country s south and southeast.
