Officials confirmed this Sunday that a drone strike successfully took down several identified al-Qaeda operatives in the northern province of al-Jawf.
A tribal source told reporters that the air raid targeted a vehicle traveling in Khab al-Shath.
Hassan al-Saleh Huraydan, his brother and three others are believed to have died in the attack. All men have been tagged by the authorities as well-know terror militants in Yemen.
This new attack comes amid a broad military operation across Yemen against al-Qaeda. Although Yemen and its allies, the United States of American have been relentless in their targeting of the terror group, through the use of drones, on the ground collaboration with local tribes and a strong security and intelligence network, the group has managed against all odds to strive in the shadows, metastasizing in pockets of resistance nationwide.
President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi who ordered last week a large ground and air offensive in the south-eastern province of Hadhramawt where al-Qaeda established a new base, is said to be determined to dismantle the terror group and pursue its operatives wherever they might be.
Last week two drone attacks in the southern province of Abyan, a former al-Qaeda fief, killed seven suspected terrorists and wounded two more.
With security analysts warning that al-Qaeda might be playing Yemen's current political weakness and instability to expand its zone of influence in the region, the coalition government moved to the offensive, keen to prevent a repeat of 2011 debacle when Islamists successfully declared two Yemeni cities as Islamic Caliphates.