Suspected Al Qaeda militants in Yemen were hit in a drone strike this past weekend. Six people were left dead from the attack.
Sources at ABC News say the strike came Saturday night in the southern province of Abyan in Yemen . A two-vehicle convoy was targeted by unmanned aerial drones in the strike. All passengers in the vehicles were killed. They were all believed to be members of Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as well.
This report comes from an official in the Yemeni military under the condition on that he would not be named.
The Abyan province has become a stronghold for Al Qaeda affiliate groups like AQAP in recent years. Militant forces managed to take control of large areas of the southern region in 2010 and 2011. At that time, uprisings and government instability allowed militant forces to claim much of the territory with little difficulty.
Since then the US has increased its support of Yemen’s military , CNN reports. This is especially true in the Mahfad district of Abyan province, where this past weekend’s drone strike killed six suspected Al Qaeda militants.
In 2011 the US carried out 18 drone strikes in Yemen. In the year following nearly triple the number of drone attacks were made with 53 strikes. ABC News reports these figures as presented by the New America Foundation think tank based in Washington.
US military officials have said that they consider AQAP to be among the largest and most dangerous Al Qaeda militant groups in their global network. The recent increase in offensive from Yemen’s military and US drone support has pushed many militants out of the Abyan province. However, the mountainous Mahfad area still remains under AQAP control.
Recent drone strikes in Yemen have claimed the lives of several Al Qaeda militant leaders, including Saeed al-Shehri who was confirmed killed earlier in July.
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