US drone strikes in Yemen leave 3 Al-Qaeda men dead

Suspected US drone strikes killed three Al-Qaeda militants yesterday in the northern Yemeni province of Saada, tribal sources told AFP. “Three Al-Qaeda suspects were killed in three separate drone strikes in Saada,” a tribal source said, adding the raids targeted Wadi Al-Abu Jabara, an Al-Qaeda bastion some 250 km north of the Yemeni capital. A second tribal source confirmed the toll, adding that yesterday’s strike “was the first by a US drone in the northern Saada province in recent months.” The United States is the only country that operates drones in the region. Yemen’s mountainous north is a stronghold of the Huthis, Shiite Zaidi rebels who in recent weeks have released several statements denouncing the presence of “unmanned drones” flying over their territory, according to the tribal source. Since 2004, the Huthis have fought six wars with Yemen’s central government before signing a truce in February 2010. Today they are embroiled in deadly sectarian clashes with Salafists who are trying to tighten their grip on the traditionally Shiite north. Yesterday’s drone strike was the fourth this month in Yemen. On Oct. 21, four Al-Qaeda members, including a local chief, were killed by a suspected US drone strike on their vehicle in Yemen’s eastern Maarib province. Four days earlier, rockets fired from a drone near Jaar in the southern Abyan province killed at least seven suspected Al-Qaeda operatives.