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They said the
attack in Marib province, controlled by forces loyal to exiled
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, occurred late on Friday. A
local commander of the militant Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP), known as Abu Khaled al-Sanaani, was killed
along with three associates, they said.
It was the second drone strike in two days to target a local
commander of the Islamist militant group regarded by U.S.
officials as one of the most dangerous branches of al Qaeda.
A drone strike on a vehicle in al-Bayda province in central
Yemen killed a senior AQAP leader known as Abdallah al-Sanaani,
identified as a regional commander of the group, on Thursday.
The United States has been using drones to target the Islamist
militant group which has exploited Yemen's civil war to carve
out a foothold in the impoverished country. Several leaders of
the group have been killed by drone strikes in recent years.
U.S. officials have said AQAP is one of the most potent security
threats in the Middle East. The group, whose attacks have mainly
targeted the Yemeni government and the Iran-allied Houthi group,
claimed responsibility for an attack last year on the Paris
office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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