ADEN – A drone strike probably carried by the United States killed fivesuspected Al-Qaeda jihadists, including a local commander, in centralYemen s Bayda province Sunday, an official said.
The US military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.
An official in Bayda province said the five suspects were armed and in acar when the drone targeted them, and included a local jihadist leaderknown as “Dahab”, gold in Arabic. He gave no further details.
The United States considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the ArabianPeninsula (AQAP) to be the radical group s most dangerous branch.
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Drone attacks against AQAP intensified after US President Donald Trump tookoffice in January 2017.
AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the impoverished country s civil war,which pits the Saudi-backed government against Shiite Huthi rebels. -APP/AFP
