Yemen Suspected U.S. Drone Strikes Kill 11 Al Qaeda Militants

SANAA, Yemen — Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed 11 al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen on Saturday, Yemeni military officials said.

The first attack took place near the border of Marib and Shabwa provinces southeast of the capital, Sanaa, killing six militants, including one Egyptian national, the officials said. The second strike hit two cars in Marib, killing five al-Qaida-linked fighters.

Over the past year, parts of Marib, Shabwa and other southern provinces have fallen under the control of al-Qaida militants who have capitalized on the turmoil in Yemen that stems from the popular uprising that toppled longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

There was no immediate word from the U.S. on whether Washington was behind Saturday's attacks. In the past two weeks, suspected U.S. airstrikes have killed at least three senior al-Qaida operatives in southern Yemen.

Yemeni officials have reported more frequent U.S. drone strikes since Yemen's new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, took power in February after Saleh stepped down. Hadi has since ramped up the fight against al-Qaida militants.

The Pentagon recently sent American military trainers to Yemen, and Washington has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to assist the impoverished Arab nation fight al-Qaida and other extremist groups in the country.

The U.S. says al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the group's most dangerous offshoots.

Yemen was the launching pad for two foiled al-Qaida attacks on U.S. territory: the Christmas 2009 attempt to down an American airliner over Detroit with an underwear bomb and the sending of printer cartridges packed with explosives to Chicago-area synagogues in 2010.

On Monday, The Associated Press disclosed that the CIA thwarted yet another plot by AQAP to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb which could have been undetectable by conventional airport scanners.

Separately, Yemeni military officials said an assault by government troops Saturday on al-Qaida forces around the southern city of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, left a general, a soldier and six militants dead.

The attack was part of the Yemeni military's broader campaign against al-Qaida-linked fighters in the south. Residents say the military used warplanes and artillery to pound areas west and north of Zinjibar.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[shagmaster]

12:53 PM on 05/18/2012

Gotta love those "million dollar bombs" with the name al-Qaida printed on them. If any of them "fail", then send it back to the US for the homeless and hungry to chew on.

[Robert Morton]

08:24 PM on 05/17/2012

As a member of the AFIO, I visited Creech AFB in Nevada and toured the predator and reaper drone facilities there. They kill terrorists, like Kamal Derwish. A Hellfire missile was shot from a Predator drone meant for other terrorists sitting in the auto next to him. Derwish was a radical Islamist, a devote al Qaeda member, and worshiper of Osama bin Laden. Practically all of the terrorist acts inside the U.S. are committed by American citizens who took jaunts to the local terrorist training camps in the Middle East and Africa, only to return to the U.S. as al Qaeda trainees and recruiters.

The CIA linked Derwish and Al Qaeda. He received operational training in Afghanistan and fought with Muslim rebels in Bosnia in the mid-nineties. The CIA has in its clandestine files communication between Derwish and both Saad bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, as well as Tawfiq bin Atash, one of the planners of 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. Derwish was traveling through a barren stretch of Yemen's Ma'rib desert with six Al Qaeda members. Tipped off by Yemeni security agents that a suspected planner of the USS Cole bombing was in the vehicle, the CIA was silently trailing the group with a drone remotely operated from a clandestine airbase believed to be in the nearby country of Djibouti. The Predator drone launched a Hellfire missile, destroying the vehicle. Robert at Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) News
www.osintdaily.blogspot.com

[HansB]

03:24 AM on 05/14/2012

Al Qaeda, Al Shmaeda. How convenient to associate any group you want to wipe out with 9/11. We're being lied to.

[Enso]

11:24 PM on 05/13/2012

Kings win. Lakers win. Drones win.
A great day all around

[porsche996]

10:08 PM on 05/13/2012

Tried and convicted targets prosecuted forthwith. Democracy is a wonderful thing in action.

[adamben]

08:44 AM on 05/14/2012

nothing democratic about conducting a war. ask abraham lincoln. fdr. george washington.

[Micheal Frisbie]

08:48 PM on 05/13/2012

as soon as iran copies the drone they captured... we can start the drone wars.

[Enso]

11:23 PM on 05/13/2012

Anything Iranian antediluvian theocracy starts we will win.

[Micheal Frisbie]

11:50 PM on 05/13/2012

there is such a thing as winning... and still losing.

[adamben]

08:44 AM on 05/14/2012

lol.

[glenn113]

06:43 PM on 05/13/2012

Thank you President Obama and CIA for keeping us safe. Keep up the good work!

[shagmaster]

01:04 PM on 05/18/2012

I was under the assumption that it was those "brave soldiers who fight and/or get killed in the line of duty" that actually keep us safe in the US. Obama gets the glory? I don't think so Scooter!

[glenn113]

12:20 AM on 05/19/2012

Attah boy! Another All-American patriot loving Obamahater rooting for the enemy.

Scooter? Wasn't that some official of a Chickenhawk who was pardoned by W. for outing a CIA agent?

[offcenterlevi]

04:59 PM on 05/13/2012

Obama has decimated the ranks of al Qaida. Bush did virtually nothing. Obama has deported more illegals in 4 years than Bush did in 8. Illegal immigration is at a 10 year low. The Republican propaganda machine, the best since Russia's Pravda is still saying that this is not true. Lots of ignorant right wingers believe the hype. This is what the duplicitous Romney machine is counting on.

[jrwest78]

09:40 PM on 05/13/2012

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-19/politics/politics_deportation-record_1_ice-director-john-morton-undocumented-immigrants-criminal-alien-program?_s=PM:POLITICS

[jrwest78]

09:43 PM on 05/13/2012

For the record: In Operation Iraqi Freedom more than 19,429 Al-Qaeda and Islamic militants have been killed. Over 18,900 insurgents have been captured.

[Boomer in Itasca]

04:17 PM on 05/13/2012

Romney was on Meet The Press this morning and he claimed credit for the drone attacks. Said it was part of his original plan to save GM and Chrysler. Or something like that.

[glenn113]

06:43 PM on 05/13/2012

you're kidding I hope

[Boomer in Itasca]

02:02 AM on 05/14/2012

Yeah At least for now. Who knows what he'll say tomorrow. Would you be surprised?

Fanned

[Mack753951]

03:31 PM on 05/13/2012

Let's not waterboard, that's torture....let's just blow them to bits....I like it!

[adamben]

08:45 AM on 05/14/2012

well within the geneva convention.

[Mack753951]

02:50 AM on 05/16/2012

Good ole liberal justification sprinkled with no common sense...par for the course.

[Iya Sapa Mato]

03:23 PM on 05/13/2012

look this administration can kill 11 people at a Mothers day celebration and call it a strike against militants! Were they? Were some of them? Was it the right target? Everthing and I mean everthing reported as a positive has to be really scrutinized by the American people! Depend on the press or a press release from the administration! The Yemen's receive millions in aid. One Egyptyian and five suspected? I count six only one confirmed and the other five? IT IS AN ELECTION YEAR! Everthing has to be a positive and look good! Believe half of what you are told and nothing of what is written. I can prove that in at least five articles written about what I was involved in! All good before you libs use your usual personal attacks.

[ObamaLovesAll1]

03:10 PM on 05/13/2012

Between killing people and playing basketball I can see why Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize.

[glenn113]

06:46 PM on 05/13/2012

Attah Boy! Another All-American Patriot loving Obamahater jealous because he is keeping us safe. Keep rooting for the enemy.

[Dirtyrick]

02:45 PM on 05/13/2012

Fail bama needs to get these drones on our border and out of the middle east. We have more serious issues right here at home.

[Errant]

06:27 PM on 05/13/2012

Bomb people desperate to escape Mexico and find jobs. . . and leave alone the people that wish our imminent demise? Right, good plan there chief.

[glenn113]

06:50 PM on 05/13/2012

So al-Quada can be successful in an attack on America just to make Obama look bad? And by the way he has drones on the border. Sorry to dissapoint you.

[reasonable84]

02:06 PM on 05/13/2012

Love those drones. Keep 'em flying and kill many, many more terrorists. Best way to bomb them yet.

[glenn113]

06:46 PM on 05/13/2012

x2!

[shagmaster]

01:11 PM on 05/18/2012

I thought the "shock & awe method" of the Bush Era was the best, along with a million man convoy.

[Rexter]

11:56 AM on 05/13/2012

"Suspected U.S. drone strikes.."

I always get a kick out of that opening line. Who else, duh?

[RedWingFan51]

12:21 PM on 05/13/2012

Just proves how stupid the Liberal Media is?

[penhog]

02:42 PM on 05/13/2012

I don't see them as lib's...I see them as rich corporate interests with foreign investments that aren't know to the public.They want to influence our Govt. in a way that makes their blood money grow. Current business wisdom is all about a foreign world trade model not on any one nation or philosophy...capitalism and communism are very closely linked that way.