34 Qaeda suspects killed in Yemen airstrike

SANAA (AFP/Reuters) - Yemeni aircraft killed 34 suspected Al-Qaeda members, including senior leaders, in a dawn raid on Thursday in a remote mountainous region, the second such strike in eight days, security sources said.
The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh, Shabwa province, one source said, referring to a rugged location about 650 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa.
The head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wahishi, and his deputy Saeed al-Saudi Shahrani were present at the meeting, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He added that members of the groups leadership, including Saad al-Fathani and Mohammed Ahmed Saleh al-Omir, were among those killed.
The source was unable to say what had happened to Wahishi or his deputy, but indicated Omir had recently appeared in a video of a public meeting in Abyan province south of the capital which was later aired by Al-Jazeera television.
A second security source told AFP the raid had been launched after residents had tipped the authorities off about the meeting.
The defence ministry newspaper cited a source in the High Security Council as saying more than 30 Al-Qaeda members were killed in Thursdays strike.
A Yemeni official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP those attending the gathering planned to launch terrorist attacks against economic installations in Yemen, in retaliation for Yemeni strikes launched last week.
He was referring to coordinated raids against Al-Qaeda on December 17, including an airstrike against a suspected training camp in Abyan, in which the government said 34 Al-Qaeda suspects were killed.
A local official and a tribal source said 49 civilians, including 23 women and 17 children, were killed in that airstrike. The civilian casualties sparked protests in Abyan and two people were killed by twin explosions after one such protest on Monday.
The defence ministry newspaper said a simultaneous raid by ground forces north of the capital on December 17 killed four suspects and foiled a plot to bomb the British embassy in Sanaa.
Yemeni troops killed seven people in a raid on the home of a Shia rebel leader north of the capital and the air force struck rebel positions there on Thursday, witnesses told AFP.
The leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and a Muslim preacher linked by US intelligence to deaths at a US army base are believed to have died in a Yemen airstrike, a security official said on Thursday.
Southern Yemeni separatist leader Tareq al-Fadhli threatened to arm his supporters in response to official violence, during a protest rally in his Jinzibar stronghold on Thursday, witnesses said.