AQAP or al-Qaeda Yemen revealed on Monday how its attack in September against Mukalla’s military headquarters (south-eastern province of Hadhramawt) aimed at disabling a secret American operation room and not as previously claimed by have military sources to establish a foothold in the city.

When terror militants stormed the outwardly modest Mukalla military headquarter, which consists essentially of a several-storey building, military and security sources were quick to assume that al-Qaeda sought to establish a new base in the city to secure a sea opening, a geo-strategic advantage against Sana’a central government.

As it turns out al-Qaeda had a very specific target in mind, destroying a secret US operation room. American official have been using such military outpost to run their drone campaign and help gather ground intelligence, as part of a broad counter-terror strategy in the region.

Al-Qaeda warned that its militants would continue to target US interests in Yemen.

It is important to note that Yemeni officials have denied the existence of the so-called “secret operation room,” stressing that the terror group’s allegations were pure fabrication; the ranting of the Islamic extremists whose goals is to spread discord and mistrust amid the population.

Officials quoted by Reuters explained "The command and control room in Mukalla was equipped and tasked to counter piracy in addition to monitoring and securing shipping routes in the Arabian SeaAs per noted by Reuters this Monday, AQAP said Yemen had turned a number of its military facilities in recent years into "intelligence and operations rooms to direct the war against the Mujahedeen (holy fighters) and operate pilotless planes".

"The Mujahedeen have directed a harsh blow to one of these headquarters," read a message posted on Shumukh al-Islam, an Islamist website in reference to September 30th attack.