SANAA : A suspected US drone strike in western Yemen has killed five Al-Qaeda militants, including a local chief, a security official and witnesses said on Thursday.
The raid that took place late Wednesday in Dhamar province, killed Hamid Radman al-Manea, known as al-Radmi, and four of his guards, the official said in a statement carried by Saba state news agency.
Witnesses told AFP that two rockets hit the vehicle transporting the group. A drone attack in February killed leading Al-Qaeda cleric Adel al-Abab in the eastern Shabwa province. US drone strikes against Al-Qaeda militants are frequent in Yemen, home to the franchise seen by the United States as the jihadist network’s deadliest and most active. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi. In July 2011 he reaffirmed the group’s allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of the worldwide Al-Qaeda network since the killing in May of OBL.