Yemen: US warplanes strike Qaeda targets
Submitted by WW4 Report on Sat, 03/04/2017 - 02:20
US warplanes and drones struck supposed al-Qaeda targets in Yemen for a second straight day March 3, killing at least 12 suspected militants, according to local officials. The Pentagon said it had carried out more than 20 strikes overnight targeting al-Qaeda positions in the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan, and the central province of Baida. In the latest strikes, US fighter jets hit three houses in the Yashbam Valley before dawn, one of them reportedly the home of al-Qaeda's Shabwa province commander, Saad Atef, local sources said. Tribal sources said that several civilians were wounded, including women and children. One resident said it had been a "terrifying night." (Middle East Online, Al Jazeera, BBC News)
Ex-Gitmo detainee killed in Yemen air-strike: Pentagon
The Pentagon has announced that a former Guantánamo detainee known as Muhammad Yasir Ahmed Taher AKA Yasir al Silmi was killed in an air-strike on an AQAP target in Yemen on March 2. Taher was transfered to Yemen on Dec. 19, 2009. He was reportedly killed in Yemen’s Abyan governorate. (LWJ)
White House claims death of AQAP leader
The White House announced Feb. 6 that Qasim al-Rimi (or al-Raymi), the "emir" of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was "successfully eliminated" in a "counterterrorism operation in Yemen." AQAP has sustained a series of decapitation strikes, including the deaths of four senior figures in 2015. Rimi’s predecessor, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, was killed in a drone strike in June of that year. (Long War Journal)