US Airstrike in Yemen Kills Five Al-Qaeda Members, Yemeni Security Sources Say
Five members of Al-Qaeda were killed in a US airstrike in southern Yemen, Arab News reported citing two Yemeni security sources.
“Local residents reported the US strike, which eliminated five Al-Qaeda members,” said one security official from Abyan province, near Yemen’s internationally recognized government seat in Aden. The second source confirmed the strike occurred Friday evening north of Khabar Al-Maraqsha, a mountainous area known as an Al-Qaeda stronghold.
While the identities of those killed remain unknown, it is believed that one was a local Al-Qaeda leader.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), formed in 2009 from the merger of Yemeni and Saudi factions, has been considered by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network. AQAP expanded amid Yemen’s ongoing conflict since 2015, involving Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition supporting the government.
Earlier this month, the US agreed to a ceasefire with the Houthis, who have controlled large parts of Yemen for over a decade. The Houthis began attacking shipping routes in late 2023, leading to US and UK military strikes starting January 2024. Yemen’s war has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, though fighting eased after a UN-brokered truce in 2022.
