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Drone strike on al-Qaeda 'kills 13' in southern Yemen | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
At least 13 people have been killed in air strikes on militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in southern Yemen, residents and officials say. | |
One tribal leader said at least four of the dead were local al-Qaeda leaders, the Reuters news agency reports. | |
They were reportedly attacked by a drone in Abyan province. | They were reportedly attacked by a drone in Abyan province. |
Islamists began taking control of parts of Abyan last year. Security forces have tried unsuccessfully to push them out and suffered heavy losses. | Islamists began taking control of parts of Abyan last year. Security forces have tried unsuccessfully to push them out and suffered heavy losses. |
The details of what happened are not clear, but some reports suggest a convoy of two cars was struck east of Lawdar. | |
However, tribal leaders told the AFP news agency that a control post and a school hosting a midnight meeting of local al-Qaeda chiefs and fighters were targeted in four overnight raids. | |
Abdul Munim al-Fathani, who was reportedly wanted by the US for alleged links to the attacks on the USS Cole in 2000 and a French oil tanker in 2002, was among the dead, they said. | |
"We think they were carried out by American planes," one tribal source told AFP, on condition of anonymity and without elaborating. | "We think they were carried out by American planes," one tribal source told AFP, on condition of anonymity and without elaborating. |
Southern stronghold | |
An al-Qaeda spokesman told Reuters that there had been a strike, but said only three of its members were killed and two were wounded. | |
There was no immediate comment from the US authorities. | |
The US and CIA conducts drone attacks on suspected militants in southern Yemen, but officials rarely discuss the programme. In September last year, US officials said a radical American cleric of Yemeni descent, Anwar al-Awlaki, had been killed in a US air strike. | |
Many Yemenis are against the strikes, which they say regularly kill civilians. In late 2009, more than 40 died in an air strike which the US said targeted al-Qaeda. | |
There has been concern that al-Qaeda-linked militants have strengthened their position in southern and eastern parts of Yemen as protests and unrest shook the country last year. | |
In November, President Ali Abdullah Saleh - who ruled for more than three decades - bowed to pressure to hand over power to his deputy, after months of opposition to his rule. | |
Mr Saleh is now in the US for medical treatment after sustaining injuries in a bombing at the presidential palace in the capital, Sanaa, in June. |