Thursday, May 10, 2012
ADEN (AFP)--Air attacks and mortar fire killed 20 al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen Thursday, including eight who died in U.S. drone strikes, officials and tribal sources said.
The latest attacks follow a deadly raid on Sunday that killed a top al Qaeda leader wanted by the U.S., and amid reports a Saudi mole had infiltrated the network and supplied information to the Central Intelligence Agency.
The drone strikes took place around 2100 GMT in the town of Jaar, an al Qaeda stronghold in Abyan province, a source in the town said.
"We heard three explosions rock the town," the source said, adding that a "U.S. drone" carried out the strikes on a residence where the jihadists had been meeting in the dead of night.
No other houses were affected in what appeared to be surgical strikes based on precise information.
Another tribal source said that among the militants killed was one going by the name of "Jallad," who had been in charge of armaments for al Qaeda's fighters in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry's news website 26sep.net reported that 10 other al Qaeda militants were killed on Thursday in a heavy bombardment of their strongholds in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.
And just west of Zinjibar, two other al Qaeda suspects, including a local chief named as Khaldun al-Sayyed, were killed in an air strike, a pro-government militia official said.
The official could not however say if that raid on the town of Shaqra was carried out by a U.S. drone.
The latest air strikes came after Yemeni al Qaeda leader Fahd al-Quso, who was wanted in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, was killed in an air strike in eastern Yemen on Sunday.
Quso's name figured on an FBI list of most wanted terrorists, along with a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-05-12 1520GMT
