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AFP
Weekend drone strikes in Yemen killed more than 40 suspected Al Qaeda militants, including 30 yesterday, days after the jihadist network’s Arabian Peninsula offshoot vowed to fight against Western “crusaders”.
The United States is the only country that operates drones in Yemen, and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has defended their use, despite criticism from rights groups who deplore civilian casualties.
Yesterday US drones fired “several missiles” into a training camp run by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the rugged Wadi Ghadina region in the southern province of Abyan, a tribal chief said.
“More than 30 members of Al Qaeda were killed and many others wounded,” near Al-Mahfad town, he said.
Witnesses also said that a US drone carried out the attack and that the most of the wounded were evacuated by members of the Islamist network.
A statement on the 26sep.net defence ministry website said the attack on Al Qaeda “training camps” killed “several” militants of various nationalities.
On Saturday a drone strike in the central province of Baida killed 10 Al Qaeda suspects and three civilians, according to the official Saba news agency. It did not say who carried out the attack.
After that strike, Al Qaeda militants cordoned off the area and evacuated dead comrades, tribal sources said.
They said all those killed on Saturday were low-ranking militants from the region.
An official statement on Saba said the dead were “dangerous elements” who had been plotting to carry out “attacks on vital installations and on politicians and military personnel” in Baida.
The statement said the suspects were also responsible for the murder of Baida’s deputy governor on April 15.
The weekend attacks came less than a week after AQAP chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi pledged in a rare video appearance to fight Western “crusaders” everywhere.
“We will continue to raise the banner of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and our war against the crusaders will continue everywhere in the world,” he said in the video posted online.
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