US attack kills 17 al-Qaeda militants

Tribal sources in Bayda, some 166 miles southeast of the capital Sanaa, said they found 17 bodies of militants believed to be al-Qaeda members in the rubble of buildings destroyed by the air raids, launched late on Friday.

“The bodies were recovered on Saturday morning after the cessation of the attacks carried out by US drone planes, and the search for the remaining victims is still under way,” one source said.

The raids targeted a rural area where Abdulwahhab al-Homaiqani, a local al-Qaeda leader, and dozens of followers, were believed to be based. It is not known whether Homaiqani was killed or not.

Vehicles and cars used by al-Qaeda were also destroyed and equipment and weapons found that suggested the militants might launch attacks in Bayda governorate.

Militants have expanded their operations in southern Yemen during months of turmoil that eventually unseated the president.

Residents earlier said that fighter planes had raided the western outskirts of Bayda town where the Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) militants, who have been fighting Yemen’s security forces since mid-2011, had been based.

“Flames and smoke could be seen rising from the area,” one resident said.

Ansar al-Sharia is inspired by al-Qaeda but the precise nature of its ties to the global network are unclear, although the Yemeni government says they are one and the same.

Working with Yemeni authorities, the US has repeatedly used drones to attack al-Qaeda militants in the Arabian Peninsula, described by CIA Director David Petraeus as “the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad”.

In late January, at least 12 al-Qaeda militants were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen.