Five men suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda were killed in Yemen in a drone strike likely to have been carried out by the United States, a security official said.
The strike on Juba in the central Marib province, the site of a ground raid by U.S. commandos in May, killed five Yemenis and “foreigners” in an attack that targeted a gathering of people “known to belong to Al-Qaeda,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He declined to elaborate on the nationalities of those killed.
The United States considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the group’s most dangerous branch.
A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified since President Donald Trump took office in January. An air raid he ordered that month killed a U.S. Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians in Bayda province, south of Marib.
The May raid on Marib killed at least seven militants in an operation that also left several American troops wounded.
AQAP has taken advantage of a war between the Saudi-backed government and Shiite Houthis to expand its presence in several areas of eastern and southern Yemen.
