Yemen: Reported US covert actions 2014

A US Air Force drone in a hangar in Iraq, August 2011 (Photo: US Air Force/Master Sgt. Ricardo)

The events detailed here have been reported by US and Yemeni government, military and intelligence officials, and by credible media, academic and other sources.

Many of the US attacks have been confirmed by senior American or Yemeni officials. However some events are only speculatively attributed to the US, or are indicative of US involvement. For example precision night-time strikes on moving vehicles, whilst often attributed to the Yemen Air Force, are more likely to be the work of US forces. We therefore class all strikes in Yemen as either ‘confirmed’ or ‘possible’.

Both the Pentagon and CIA have been operating drones over Yemen. But the US has also launched strikes with other weapons systems, including conventional jet aircraft and cruise missiles. The Bureau records these operations as ‘additional US attacks’.

The Bureau will continue to add to its knowledge base, and welcomes input and corrections from interested parties.

Click here for our 2001-2011 Yemen data.

Click here for our 2012 Yemen data.

Click here for our 2013 Yemen data.

YEM146C
January 5 2014
♦ 5 reported killed
♦ 0-4 reported injured
The Yemeni Interior Ministry announced an airstrike against ‘locations of Al Qaeda in the province of Abyan, southern Yemen’ took place on January 5. The Ministry said the strike ‘led to a number of dead and injured in the ranks of Al Qaeda’. Military sources in Abyan told The Yemen Times that five suspected operatives of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were killed and four others were wounded when the Yemeni ‘Air Force targeted two [Toyota] Hilux model cars’ in the Al Mahfad district of Abyan.

One news outlet reported the incident was ‘believed to be a US drone strike’. The Bureau is treating this incident as a probable Yemeni airstrike and not including it in our casualty estimates.

Type of strike: Probable Yemeni airstrike
Location: Abyan province
References: The Yemen Times, Al Masdar (Ar), Nashwan News (Ar)

YEM147
January 6 2014
♦ 0-2 reported injured, possibly civilians

Several outlets reported that at least two people were injured when a US drone strike hit a car on the main highway of Al Bayda province, near the city of Radaa. Eyewitnesses and ‘local sources’ were quoted as saying that ‘an American drone hit a vehicle which was transporting people believed to members of Al Qaeda’. A separate source, however, named the injured as Adnan Saleh Al Taysi and Ibrahim Hussein Al Aarif, whose parents ‘denied the presence of an Al Qaeda members in the targeted vehicle’.

The same source suggested that the strike may have missed its intended target – ‘an old truck carrying seven people’ – instead injuring ‘two civilians’.

The reported strike occurred close to the site of a US drone strike that killed between 10 and 17 people and wounded up to 30 more in December 2013 (YEM155). Several of those reported killed in the strike were members of the Al Taysi family.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Radaa area, al Bayda province
References: Mareb Press (Ar), Al-Ahed.net (Ar), Shabab Press, Anadolu News Agency

YEM148

January 8 2014
♦ 2 reported killed
♦ 0-2 reported injured

Residents, security officials and local officials said a US drone strike killed two alleged AQAP members in the southeastern province of Hadramout. Reuters reported that the drone ‘fired at least one missile’ on a car in Hadramout’s Al-Qatan district, ‘completely destroying the vehicle and killing two people’.

A Yemeni government official told Xinhua news agency that those killed in the strike were ‘suspected Al Qaeda militants,’ adding that two other people were wounded in the incident. A local military intelligence officer said ‘the strike was aimed at a top commander of the Al Qaeda terrorist group travelling in the vehicle’. UPI, quoting a security source, reported that the strike occurred in Wadi Mankhar in Al-Qatan.

Residents told local press that a drone targeted a private vehicle on Al-Qatan’s main road. ‘A source’ suggested that the two bodies at the scene belonged to suspected AQAP members, Aden al-Ghad reported.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Al-Qatan, Hadramout province
References: Reuters, Xinhua, UPI (Ar), Aden al-Ghad (Ar)

YEM149

January 15 2014

♦ 1 reported killed
♦ 2 reported injured
♦ 1 civilian reported killed

Either a farmer or an alleged al Qaeda member was reportedly killed in an early morning strike. This was the first report of civilian casualties in Yemen in 2014. Witnesses told Reuters drones fired two missiles but shrapnel hit a farmer walking home in the early hours. The agency did not report any other casualties. However local and Arabic media reported the casualty as an al Qaeda member. A local source told Xinhua: ‘An American drone targeted a person in an area close to the old city of Shibam in the Hadramout province.’

The source added: ‘Fragments from the person’s body were flying due to him being directly hit. A car arrived to the area and took the fragments then left to an unknown destination.’

A Yemeni security source told Al-Medina news a suspected US drone fired ‘three rockets targeting a car containing three members of al Qaeda’. The outlet also reported a fourth ‘person’ who was standing by the side of the road was killed in the strike.

‘Well informed sources’ told Al-Hayat newspaper that the strike killed suspected al Qaeda operative Abdel Majid al-Shahry, a Saudi national. Shahry’s grandfather confirmed his death in a phone call to the newspaper.

A Yemeni security source told Al-Medina news a suspected US drone fired ‘three rockets targeting a car containing three members of al Qaeda’. The outlet also reported a fourth ‘person’ who was standing by the side of the road was killed in the strike.

Al-Motamar news reported that one suspected al Qaeda member was killed and two other suspected al Qaeda members were wounded in a US drone strike.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Shibam, Hadramout Province
References: Shorouk News (Ar), Nashwan News (Ar), AFP (Ar), Xinhua (Ar), Reuters, Al-Madina (Ar), Al-Motamar (Ar), Al-Hayat (Ar)

YEM150

January 24 2014
♦ 3-4 people killed
♦ ‘Several’ people reported injured
♦ Possible civilian casualties

A drone strike destroyed a car carrying three or four people. The dead were allegedly al Qaeda militants.

Local media named one of the dead as Mohammed Saeed Jardan – a local of Abeeda. An official told Xinhua: ‘Four people were killed in the U.S. drone strike which took place on Thursday night in coordination with the Yemeni interior ministry.’ The official also said there was ‘an al Qaeda suspect’ among the targets. Explosions ‘rocked the area after the strike’ which suggested ‘the vehicle carried weapons or ammunition,’ according to one report.

The Yemen interior ministry reportedly said it had foiled an al Qaeda attack in Marib province. No further details were reported. The strike reportedly hit near a military position in the wadi – a dry river bed or valley.

The vehicle, reportedly a Suzuki Vitara, was traveling through Marib province at night when it was hit, strongly suggesting a US drone carried out the attack. While Yemen’s air force has carried out strikes against al Qaeda, it is not considered capable of flying precision strikes at night.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Wadi Abeeda, Marib province
References: Xinhua, Associated Press, AFP, Aden al Ghad (Ar), Barakish (Ar), News Yemen (Ar)

YEM151

February 3 2014
♦ 0-4 people reported killed
♦ 0-2 reported injured
♦ Possible civilian casualties

Yemen’s Ministry of Interior, citing security sources, announced an ‘airstrike’ took place in Abyan province against alleged al Qaeda militants. ‘Members of al Qaeda at the location were killed and injured,’ it reported. Although it did not specify what type of airstrike had occurred, the announcement was illustrated with an image of US Reaper drone.

Turkish Anadolu News Agency, quoting security sources, said a US drone ‘attacked suspected Al-Qaeda sites in the province’s Al-Mahfad district,’ adding that the number of casualties was unclear. Yemen Press, quoting military sources, said ‘a number of raids’ were launched by US drones against suspected al Qaeda locations in the vicinity. The sources said a number of casualties has been sustained in the raids, without specifying the exact number.

But Erem News reported a local source saying that while four people were killed and two wounded its local source was unable to verify whether or not the casualties were suspected militants. ‘It is feared [the killed and wounded] are civilians,’ it added.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Al-Mahfad district, Abyan province
References: Anadolu News Agency, Erem News (Ar), Yemen Ministry of Interior (Ar), Yemen Press (Ar)

YEM152

March 2 2014
♦ 2-3 people reported killed
♦ 2 people wounded – reportedly civilians

A reported drone strike targeted a vehicle carrying alleged al Qaeda members near the town of Shebwan, in Yemen’s central Marib province. Tribal sources told Aden al Ghad that the drone strike ‘targeted the vehicle of a young fighter named Jaber Saleh al Shebwani. The missile turned the vehicle into rubble and killed Shebwani as well as two of his companions.’ The Yemen Times reported two people were killed in the attack – al Shebwani and an unnamed Saudi man.

Quoting local sources, Andolu News Agency suggested Shebwani was sleeping by his car when the drone allegedly struck. ‘The fighter Jaber al Shabwani of the Al Shabwan tribe was sleeping near his vehicle in an open area before the drone launched a missile that hit his vehicle and killed him immediately,’ the sources said.

Several members of the Shebwani tribe have been reportedly killed in air strikes in Yemen. Notably, two strikes in January 2010 targeted Ayed al Shabwani (YEM006 and YEM007) and a botched strike in May that year that killed the deputy governor Jaber al Shabwani.

There was some speculation that Jaber Saleh al Shebwani was the deputy governor’s son. However this was eventually quashed on social media and in news reports.

Tribal sources: Mujahid Jabir al-Shabwani, killed in this morning’s Marib drone strike, is not the son of the late deputy governor. #Yemen

— Adam Baron (@adammbaron) March 3, 2014

More detail of al Shebwani emerged in local media. Al Shahaf reported:

He is the son of a respected businessman who works in the oil field and has contracts in Egypt and the UAE and is the head of a business based behind the Japanese Embassy in Sanaa. Activist Hamid Ghareb said that during 2009 clashes with the army in Ma’rib, Shabwani was shot in the hand. He was 14 years old and was released only after his father made a pledge that his son would not return to militancy. According to Ghareb, the prominent AQAP leader Aead al Shabwani…was a far larger influence on Shabwani than his father.

An unnamed interior ministry official told Xinhua two men ‘tending sheep near the targeted car’ were wounded in the attack.

Wasel al Shaif, an official in the governor of Marib’s administration, said armed Shebwani tribesmen retaliated to the drone strike by attacking an oil pipeline in Marib and a military headquarters in the province. Three soldiers were reportedly killed. A military source also reportedly confirmed the strike: ‘A drone had targeted a vehicle carrying members of al Qaeda in the town of Shebwan and had killed three members, amongst them is believed to be a prominent al Qaeda leader.’ The source reported that US drone operations had escalated in recent weeks in Marib province.

Activist Farea al Muslimi reported the exact location of the suspected strike as ‘the village of Akr al Shabwan in al Wadi district,’ Marib province.

this was first time occupied residents areas in Marib are targeted by #US Drone. th man was killed 500 meters from his house. #Yemen #US 3/3

— Farea Al-muslimi (@almuslimi) March 3, 2014

It was not immediately clear when precisely the strike took place, with reports varying between the night of March 2, and the morning of March 3.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Shebwan, Marib province
References: Aden al Ghad (Ar), Andolu News Agency (Ar), DPA, World Bulletin, Xinhua, Yemen Times, Xinhua, Reuters, Associated Press, Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, Al Shahaf (Ar), Aden al Ghad (Ar), Yemen Times

YEM153

March 3 2014

♦ 1 reported killed

The second air strike in as many days killed at least one person, Walid al Jemayzeh. The attack reportedly narrowly missed killing Abdul Hameed Memon Hatem, a self-identified member of AQAP – reportedly a senior figure. Yemeni journalist Abdul Razaq al Jamal first reported the strike, adding that it happened at night. Yemen’s spokesman in Washington tweeted about an air strike in the province:

#Official: Saturday airstrikes @ Abyan destroyed three vehicles linked to #AQAP militants | #Yemen |

— Mohammed Albasha (@Yemen411) March 3, 2014

An unnamed US intelligence official told the Long War Journal Hatem was ‘a person of interest’.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Mehfad, Abyan province
References: Abdul Razaq al Jamal (Ar), Al Shahaf (Ar), Twitter, Long War Journal, Xinhua

YEM154

March 3 2014
♦ 2-4 reported killed
♦ 2 reportedly wounded
♦ Possible civilian casualties

The second strike of the day killed two to four people. Local media reported two unnamed militants were killed along with two ‘others’, possibly meaning civilians.

The strike came hours after 20 Yemeni soldiers were killed and injured in an ambush while on patrol in Shabwa province. The soldiers had reportedly stopped an earlier mortar and rocket propelled grenade attack on an oil pipeline in the area.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Radhum, Shabwa province
References: Xinhua, Reuters, Associated Press, Aden al Ghad (Ar)

YEM155

March 5 2014
♦ 2-4 reported killed

The fourth strike in three days killed between two and four alleged AQAP members as they drove through northern Jawf province. The vehicle was destroyed in the attack. An alleged local militant leader, Ali Saleh Jraim (aka Ali Juraym), was reportedly killed with 1-3 unnamed associates. Jraim was reportedly a veteran of the Iraqi insurgency.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Khalek, Jawf province
References: AFP, Reuters, Xinhua, Associated Press

YEM155C

March 7 2014
♦ 15 reported killed

A named Yemeni soldier told the Yemen Times 15 people were killed by drones in Mahfed, Abyan province. Unusually, Yemen Times reported the name of their military source. Shaker al Ghadeer was reportedly a soldier with Brigade 111 base in Abyan province. He was the only source of this strike. However a source in Yemen, speaking independently of this attack, told the Bureau several airstrikes have gone unreported in the Mahfed area of Abyan.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Mahfed, Abyan province
References: Yemen Times

YEM156
March 10 2014
♦ 1-4 reported killed
♦ 0-1 civilian reported killed, a child

At least one person was killed in the fifth airstrike on Yemen in eight days. Initial reports were conflicted – either one, two or four people were killed when one or two vehicles were destroyed. The attack hit at night, suggesting it was a US drone strike – the Yemen Air Force is incapable of flying strike missions at night. Three missiles were reportedly fired on the vehicle, destroying it.

The dead were all allegedly al Qaeda members though their identities were not clear. Local and international media reported alleged local al Qaeda commanders Mohammed Jabir al Shabwani and Abdullah Mubarak bin Hamad were killed in the strike. A local official told Turkish state news agency Andolu the strike killed Abbad Mubarak Jabir. However local tribesmen said Ebad al Shabwani died while driving the vehicle. The Yemen Times subsequently reported he was a 16-year old child. Brigadier Abdulkhaleq Mohammed Saleh, army operations director in Mareb, told the paper he was a militant ‘with suspected ties to al Qaeda’. Al Shabwani’s family denied this, adding the boy’s friends and family hadalso been targeted in drone strikes – including a friend Mujahid Jabir al Shabwani, killed on March 3 (YEM164).

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Wadi Abeeda, Marib province
References: Xinhua, Reuters, Anadolu Agency, AFP, al Sahafah (Ar), Khabar Agency (Ar), Yemen Times

YEM157
March 12 2014
♦ 2-3 people killed

An airstrike destroyed a vehicle, killing Moajab Aziz Hadban and Ali Hassan Mohammed Hadban. Local media reported Mojab Aziz was a local al Qaeda commander and Hassan Mohammed his bodyguard. This was the sixth strike in 11 days and the second in a week on Jawf province.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Khab Wal Shaaf, Jawf province
References: AFP, Elaph (Ar), Al Masdar Online (Ar), Xinhua, Al Sharq (Ar) Andolu Agency

YEM158
April 1 2014
♦ 3 people killed
♦ 4 people injured

Three were killed in the first strike in Yemen in 20 days. The attack reportedly hit an alleged al Qaeda camp, meeting or vehicle at around 1pm local time. The dead were reportedly taken to the town of Shabwa by car. US drones reportedly carried out the attack. The day before Yemen Air Force war planes reportedly targeted an al Qaeda position in Abyan – there were no reported casualties.

The attack came the same day as Saudi al Qaeda suspects, Mohamed Samel al Outebi, 30, and Mohamed al Aser, 31, were reportedly arrested in the west of the country. And two alleged al Qaeda members and two Yemeni soldiers were reportedly killed in the north of Yemen.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Mahfed, Abyan province
References: Xinhua, Yemen Post, al Wasat News (Ar), Barakish (Ar), Yemen Fox

April 5 2014
The US military has reportedly been barred from launching drone strikes in Yemen since a botched attack on December 12 2013 left several civilians dead. However CIA has reportedly continued to carry out attacks.

Military strikes were halted after an attack hit a wedding procession at the end of 2013. The attack killed 12-17, of which 8-16 were reportedly civilians. The dead were all from the local al Ameri and al Taysi families. The bride was wounded by flying shrapnel.

Investigations by Reprieve, Human Rights Watch and Al Jazeera America uncovered details of the attack, including the names of the victims. The US reportedly launched two investigations into the wedding strike after these details emerged. Anonymous US officials said these investigations found all those killed in the attack were militants. However they refused to reveal any details of the two inquiries.

Military operations in Yemen were carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), a secretive Special Forces group. JSOC strikes were launched from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti – the US military’s largest outpost in Africa.

Camp Lemonnier is an old French Foreign Legion base. France still has a presence at the facility. And Nato uses the base for its counter-piracy operations off the east coast of Africa. The Djibouti government asked the US to stop operating drones from Camp Lemonnier in September 2013. The government was worried drones operating from the base were crashing too frequently and could come down on civilian areas. The drones were moved to an axillary field elsewhere in Djibouti.

The CIA launched strikes from a nominally secret airstrip in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert.

The existence of the base was first revealed by Iona Craig for The Times in July 2011. In February 2013 the New York Times also reported the base existed. It also emerged that the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press had agreed to administration requests not to publish information about the base.

Location: Yemen
References: New York Times, NBC News, Reprieve, Human Rights Watch and Al Jazeera America, Wired, Bing Maps, Washington Post The Aviationist, The Times, The New York Times, Washington Post

YEM159
April 19 2014

♦ 13-21 people killed
♦ 3-8 civilians reported killed
♦ 1-6 people injured

A US drone strike on two cars killed at least 13 people – three civilians among them – in the Sawmaa area of Yemen’s southeastern al Bayda province, multiple sources reported. It was the biggest strike of its kind in Yemen since a military drone attack killed at least 12 people travelling in a wedding procession in December 2013, in the same province as this strike.

Reports offered varying estimates of how many people had been killed, but all described an attack on a vehicle carrying alleged militants, in which a separate vehicle full of civilians was also hit. Unnamed US officials, security officials, military officials and eyewitnesses all said the attack was carried out by a US drone. The US officials specified it was a CIA drone. An unnamed US official told Fox News that US Special Forces soldiers had been ‘sifting through the aftermath’ of the weekends drone strikes.

Despite this, the Yemeni government reportedly paid the relatives of the civilian victims 12m Yemeni Rials (£33,000) and sent them 30 Kalashnikov rifles. Local security chief Ahmed al Azani told the Yemen Times: ‘The victims’ families were very angry, but the Defense Ministry’s move came at an appropriate time.’

A security official said 15 suspected militants and three civilians died in the nearby vehicle. The Associated Press, citing a Yemeni military official, reported that ‘nine suspected al Qaeda militants’ died in a drone strike that ‘inadvertently killed and wounded some civilians’. The official added that ‘at least six’ civilians had been killed or wounded. Associated Press later increased its casualty count. There were reports one alleged militant survived the attack. Tribal sources said: ‘There are no less than eight civilians who have nothing to do with al Qaeda amongst the killed.’

A Yemeni army officer told Xinhua that 16 alleged militants had been killed along with five civilians, putting the total death toll at 21. ‘Another six civilians travelling in another car on the highway of Hazmiah area were also wounded,’ Xinhua reported, citing witnesses. Yemen’s defence ministry website quoted a security source as saying an unspecified number of ‘terrorists‘ had been killed in the strike.

‘This happened after security bodies received confirmed intelligence information about the presence of a car with 11 terrorist elements on board who were planning to target vital civil and military institutions in al Bayda province,’ according to Saba, Yemen’s state news agency.

An unnamed ‘senior’ defence ministry source said three senior AQAP members were among the dead, adding: ‘The militants were on a coordinating mission and we have had our eyes on them for quite a while now.’

Eyewitness Salem Naser al Khashem said: ‘While we were on the road linking al Sawmaa to the al Bayda city… a car was behind us. Suddenly, a rocket hit the car which was 15 meters away form us.’ The news site interviewed him in hospital. ‘When the car was hit, shrapnel reached our car. We had to get out and hide in a water ditch. However, the car kept on [burning] continually for approximately an hour,’ he added.

Al Khashem went on to tell the paper the drones returned to strike again near the car he was travelling in. This ‘led to the killing of three of our friends who are labourers. I was wounded and a number of my cousins were wounded.’

Yasser Ali Abderabbo Maswad, Hussein al Khashem, and Ahmed Saleh Bubek al Khashem, who was returning to Saudi Arabia to work, were killed at the scene Salem Naser al Khashem said. Abdullah Naswer al Hashem was critically injured and pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital in al Baydah town. Abdulrahman Hussein al Khsahem, Salem Naser al Khashem, Naser Mohammed al Khashem, and two others nicknamed Reem and Hawjan were reportedly injured.

One of the victims’ relatives, Abdurabu al Khashm, said the injured were in a hospital in Aden. The government was paying for their treatment, he said. The families of the injured victims would not say what compensation they were seeking from the government until after the injured were discharged from hospital. He said: ‘We may ask for blood money and monthly salaries for the victims’ families as well as monthly salaries for the injured, particularly the ones who sustained life-long injuries.’

The burning wreckage of a carrying alleged militants destroyed in a CIA drone strike (YouTube).

The dead militants were not from al Bayda province, Yemeni journalist Abdul Razzaq al Jamal reported. He said four were from al Dhale province and one was from Shabwa. A separate source named four of the alleged militants: Saif Mohammed Saif, Abdul Rahman al Sakhera, Ali Saleh al Habani and Adnan Ali Mohsen. A further source reported these names and added alleged AQAP member Abu Osama al Hasni and Akram al Hafza among the dead.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Sawmaa, Al Bayda province
References: Reuters, AFP, Associated Press, Xinhua, BBC, BBC Arabic, Al-Jazeera English, Al Ghad (Ar), Associated Press, CNN, Associated Press, The Guardian, Yemen Times, Al Bida Press (Ar), McClatchy News, Long War Journal, New York Times, Gulf News, NBC News, NBC News, Al Masdar Online (Ar), Fox News, Yemen Times

YEM160

April 20 2014

♦ 24-31 people killed
♦ 1 children reported killed
♦ 1-3 people injured

A series of air strikes hit alleged AQAP training camps in Yemen’s southern Abyan province. The attacks follow a reported US drone strike the previous day in which at least three civilians were reportedly killed. The attacks were carried out by US drones and Yemen Air Force jets, US and Yemeni officials said.

The New York Times reported unnamed US officials saying all the strikes were carried out by CIA drones. And Fares al Saqqaf, advisor to President Hadi, said ‘it wasn’t only drones but Yemeni fighter aircraft’ that launched the attack.

Initial reports suggested three to five alleged AQAP members killed. Yemen’s defence ministry website quoted an official source in the High Security Committee saying three suspected militants had been killed in an air strike in Abyan’s Mahfad district. The source said ‘leading and dangerous’ al Qaeda militants had been targeted.

But later reports put the casualties far higher, describing three linked attacks taking place after dawn. Local sources told Reuters 25 bodies were removed, while a tribal chief said more than 30 people had died. Xinhua added that helicopter gunships operated by the Yemeni military had later shelled the area.

There were reports that Saudi Arabian fighters who had been fighting in Syria were killed in this or the other strikes. An unnamed US official told Fox News that US Special Forces soldiers had been ‘sifting through the aftermath’ of the weekends drone strikes.

In late May 2014 AQAP published a eulogy of one of the group’s commanders: Ali bin Lakraa al Kazimi al Awlaki., the group’s leader in al Mahfed. He reportedly was injured in the strike and ultimately succumbed to his injuries.

Local media and militant sources reported a child was killed in the attack. Yemeni journalist Abdel Razzaq al Jamal tweeted: ‘Jarullah Ibn Sheikh Abdelmajid al Hattari was killed in the US strikes on Mahfed. He was 14 years old.’

هذه صورة جار الله ابن الشيخ عبد المجيد الهتاري. قتل قبل يومين بقصف أمريكي على مديرية المحفد اليمنية. عمره 14 عاما. pic.twitter.com/tAnU6C7Zh1

— عبد الرزاق الجمل (@aljamal2007) April 22, 2014

Al Hattari’s father, Sheikh Abdelmajid al Hattari, wrote a eulogy to his dead son. The father, an Imam in Sanaa according to his Facebook page, wrote:

He went, without asking my permission, to a session to memorise the Qoran, as he said. I overlooked him going without my permission because he was so young. I was happy that he had the desire to memorise the Qoran and support Muslim jihadi causes despite his young age. Now I have been told he was among the 50 martyrs killed by American planes in Abyan.

There were seven more people named by the Yemeni media:

Mohammad Salim Bin Ghazi al Malkab – a native of Mukalla in Hadramout province
Abu Fada Abdullah Bin Ali Khalaf al Bakri al Yafai
Khaled al Afifi
Ibrahim al Afifi
Sultan al Afifi
Omar al Hamikani
Abdullah Ali al Bakri

In October 2014 a Twitter account linked to AQAP published a eulogy for Mohammad Salem bin Ghazi (aka Mahmoud al Hadrami), an AQAP fighter. He was born in Saudi Arabia in 1973. He apparently wanted to fight in Afghanistan in the 1990s but had been unable to travel there. He had served four years in prison following which he moved to Yemen where he studied computer science, the eulogy says.

سيرة الأخ الشهيد كما نحسبه: محمد سالم بن غزي ـ تقبله الله صورة 1 pic.twitter.com/exSFu0GsJp

— نافح الطيب (@nafhateb) October 2, 2014

The Yemeni Ministry of Interior reported an hours-long series of air strikes against suspected al Qaeda positions.

‘Security authorities in Abyan revealed the killing of three dangerous al Qaeda members during the air strikes that targeted al Qaeda gatherings in the areas of Lawdiya, al Khayala and al Ramtha as well as other regions [on April 20],’ a statement on Yemen’s interior ministry website said.

‘The security authorities stated that the air strikes, which lasted for several hours, killed around terrorists from al Qaeda, including three movement leaders.’ It named among the dead alleged militants Saleh Saeed Mehrak; Salem Abedrabbo al Mushaybi, from Lawdar in Abyan province, he lived in the area of al Mamdara in Aden; and Hussein al Mehrak, a local – from Mahfed in Abyan.

Al Qaeda confirmed one of its local leaders was killed in the attack. Ali bin Likra al Kazimy, a commander in the Mahfed area, reportedly died from wounds he suffered in this attack. Al Qaeda published a statement made by al Kazimy shortly before his death. He said: ‘Americanized Yemeni army, which wants to insult and humiliate the tribes in accordance with the guidelines of the Americans.’

A local government official said it was a US drone that carried out the strike. ‘The US drone targeted an al Qaida-held training centre in Abyan’s mountainous region of Mahfad, killing five militants and injuring three others,’ the official said. Local residents told Xinhua that a suspected US drone had fired three missiles at an alleged militant hideout, destroying an unspecified number of vehicles at the site.

Type of strike: US drone strike, Yemen Air Force strike
Location: Mahfed, Abyan Province
References: Reuters, CNN, AFP, Xinhua, Yemeni Interior Ministry (Ar), McClatchy News, Long War Journal, Al Bayan (Ar), New York Times, NBC News, Twitter (Ar), Facebook (Ar), Dawa al Haq (Ar), Facebook (Ar), Hona Hadramout (Ar), Fox News, Financial Times, Buzzfeed, al Jazeera English, Associated Press, Long War Journal, Facebook (Ar), Long War Journal, Reuters, AQAP eulogy

YEM161
April 20 2014

♦ 3-4 reported killed
♦ 1 child reported killed

Elite US and Yemeni Special Forces soldiers ambushed a car in Shabwa, an eastern Yemeni province to the north of location of the previous two attacks. At least three people were killed in the attack that may have involved US drones as well as ground forces. First reports of the attack started emerging around 10.30pm local time though some reports had the attack hitting just before midnight on April 20 or shortly after, in the small hours of April 21.

The operation was reportedly either an ambush by the Yemen Army’s Counter-Terrorism Unit and US Special Forces troops from JSOC or a drone strike followed by a Special Forces ground operation to retrieve bodies of suspected senior militants. Yemeni security officials and tribal chiefs reportedly said ‘a local militant commander’, Munnaser al Anbouri, was killed in the attack.

The Times reported Yemeni troops ambushed a four-wheel drive vehicle and, after a gun battle, potentially killed al Asiri. The US-trained CTU forces dropped from helicopters onto the highway in Shabwa before engaging in a brief fire-fight with the occupants of a vehicle thought to have been carrying al Asiri. An unnamed US official subsequently told CNN US forces piloted the Russian-made Yemen Air Force helicopters in the raid. It was not clear precisely which operation the CNN report referred to. The US forces wore night vision equipment, according to the senior US official. This suggests the report corresponds to this strike, the only on of the three to reportedly take place at night. However the report also said US involvement in the operation involved ‘flying Yemeni commandos to a site where they killed scores of suspected al Qaeda members’. This would associate it with the previous attack which killed at least 24 people.

Unnamed US officials told the New York Times the CIA had carried out the drone strikes. And other unnamed US officials told the paper US Special Forces ‘had supported the Yemeni operations on the ground with intelligence and possibly logistical assistance’. NBC News reported this third of three strikes was a Yemeni Special Forces operation. The broadcaster reported that ‘it did not appear any top militants were killed’, according to an anonymous Yemeni source.

Notorious al Qaeda bomb maker Ibrahim al Asiri and AQAP leader Nasser al Wuhayshi were initially reportedly killed either by drones or in the Special Forces ambush. There were reports a high-value target had been killed however sources cautioned that this was not confirmed and US officials said al Asiri and al Wuhayshi were not the target of the three strikes.

The Times subsequently revealed neither al Asiri or al Wuhayshi were among the dead. DNA tests carried out in Saudi Arabia confirmed they were not killed in the attack.

However it seems a 16-year old boy was among the dead. And locals claimed Abdullah al Khalidi, the Saudi Arabian diplomat kidnapped in Yemen in 2012 and held by AQAP, was also killed in the attack.

Al Asiri was one of the top targets in the US covert drone war. In 2009 al Asiri designed the bomb his brother Abdullah al Asiri used in a failed attempt to assassinate Prince Mohammed Bin Nayyaf, then Saudi deputy interior minister. The charge was concealed inside Abdullah’s rectum. Ibrahim al Asiri is also credited with designing the bomb Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab concealed in his underwear bomber that was intended to bring an airliner down over the US on Christmas day 2009.

Militants reportedly stormed a hospital in Azzan, Shabwa province, as well as two smaller clinics in nearby districts. They forced the medical staff out of the facility and brought in fighters for treatment. The men were reportedly wounded in the US-Yemeni raids.

An unnamed US official told Fox News that US Special Forces soldiers had been ‘sifting through the aftermath’ of the weekends drone strikes.

President Abdu Rabbu al Mansour Hadi sent a letter of thanks and the Medal of Bravery to the CTU force that carried out the raid, the state news agency reported. According to the New York Times, US officials had ‘sought to play down the United States’ role’ in the operation to allow Hadi ‘to bolster his domestic credibility and claim credit for the operations’.

Local officials said at least three al Qaeda members had been killed when a US drone fired a missile at the car they were travelling in the early hours of April 21. A Yemeni military source said ‘at least four’ alleged militants were killed when ‘the US unmanned aircraft fired two missiles at a small pick-up truck travelling in a desert road’.

A senior Yemeni official said this was the third of three air strikes on consecutive days. The official said the attacks were part of an ‘unprecedented operation’ that was launched on ‘information that al Qaeda was plotting attacks on vital installations, military and security, as well as foreign interests in Yemen.’ Witnesses said an unmarked helicopter landed at the scene of the strike to retrieve the bodies of those killed.

Four officers and two soldiers were assassinated in the days following this strike. They were shot by gunmen on motorcycles in Sanaa and Mareb provinces.

Type of strike: US-Yemeni Special Forces raid, possible US drone strike
Location: Usylan, Shabwa Province
References: BBC, AFP, Associated Press, Xinhua, FOX News, CNN, RT, Associated Press, Yemeni Interior Ministry (Ar), Long War Journal, The Times, New York Times, NBC News, SABA News, McClatchy News, CNN, Fox News, Yemen Times, The Times, Financial Times

YEM162
May 12 2014

♦ 4-6 reported killed

At least four people were killed in a US drone strike in Mareb. They were travelling in a vehicle travelling to a farm in the area. Witnesses named two of the victims as: Naif Faraj and Mousleh al Arahabi. All the dead were allegedly al Qaeda but it was not immediately clear what was the Faraj or Arahabi’s rank or what roll they played in AQAP.

The attack came over two days after it emerged that, on April 24, a CIA spy and a lieutenant colonel with JSOC shot dead two armed men in Sanaa. The two US officers were at a barber in Sanaa when the unnamed Yemenis reportedly tried to kidnap them. The two US officers quickly left the country, with the blessing of the Yemeni government. Jeb Boone reported it was not clear if the two men were targeted because they were US officers or merely victims of an attempted kidnapping.

Boone, who covered the youth uprising in Yemen in 2011, said US intelligence officers are easy to identify in Sanaa, if the would-be kidnappers had targetted the men specifically. Boon, writing in Vice News, said: ‘Their out-of-uniform uniform, ubiquitous and often including 5-11 cargo pants, a pair of Oakley sunglasses and full beards, functioned as a caricature that could be plucked right out of the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise.’

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Al Husan, Wadi Abeeda district, Mareb province
References: AFP, Reuters, al Khabarnov (Ar), Associated Press, BBC, Reuters, VoA, Xinhua, Mareb Press (Ar), Aden al Ghad (Ar), Vice News, New York Times

YEM163
June 4 2014

♦ 3-4 reported killed

At least three alleged AQAP members were killed in a reported US drone strike on a vehicle in Wadi Abeeda – also the site of the previous reported strike. A local official told Xinhua, cited by news agency IANS, that the attack was carried out by a drone, and tribal sources confirmed this to Reuters and Xinhua. Reuters reported that at least three were killed in the attack, while Xinhua put the death toll at four. IANS, citing Xinhua, reported that tribal sources identified the vehicle as a ‘small pick-up’ belonging to Jafar al-Shabwani, described as a mid-level AQAP commander. His three companions were not named in the report.

The attack came as the Yemeni military continued its offensive against AQAP positions in the central and southern Yemeni provinces of Shabwa, Abyan and al Bayda. Yemeni journalist Farea al Muslimi called the campaign the ‘largest and most comprehensive attack led by the Yemeni army against al Qaeda’. The UN estimates more than 24,000 refugees have been displaced by the fighting, as of May 20. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Yemen Red Crescent have been providing humanitarian relief.

Days before, AQAP released a video describing the execution of four men who it said had helped target drone strikes by planting electronic chips in the cars of AQAP members. In the video, a man identified as Abi Islam Al-Muhajer, a member of AQAP’s ‘security department’, claimed: ‘The number of drone strikes has decreased in the six past months since Al-Qaeda gunmen stormed security and intelligence institutions accused of cooperating with the [U.S.] drone program targeting jihadists. Discovering the spies who install the electronic chips has decreased the opportunities for targeting Al-Qaeda affiliates.’

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Wadi Abeeda district, Mareb province
References: IANS, Reuters, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ICRC, AFP

YEM164
June 13-14 2014

♦ 5-6 reported killed

At least five alleged AQAP members were killed when their vehicle or convoy of vehicles was hit by several missiles fired by a US drone either late on June 13 (Reuters) or on June 14 (Associated Press, Xinhua). The men included local resident and reportedly ‘leading AQAP figure’ Musaed al Habshi al Barasi al Awlaqi (aka Musaad al Habashi), and Reuters quoted local tribesmen saying the dead included two unnamed Saudis. The Long War Journal noted that al Habashi’s ‘role in AQAP is unclear’ and that AQAP has not acknowledged the death.

The province’s deputy governor, Sheikh Nasser al Malish, said ‘the suspected drone strike‘ targeted alleged AQAP militants in a sparsely populated, mountainous area and did not cause any civilian casualties. Xinhua put the number of dead at ‘about six’. ‘A US unmanned aircraft fired missiles at a two-vehicle convoy of the al-Qaida gunmen in al-Saeed rugged region of Shabwa, killing about six terrorists inside the travelling cars,’ an anonymous military official told Xinhua.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Mafraq al Saeed, Shabwa province
References: Associated Press, Xinhua, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Long War Journal, Yemen Times

YEM165

June 21 2014

♦ Casualties unknown

Associated Press reports that an anonymous Yemeni security official claimed a US drone attacked unspecified targets in al Bayda, but did not provide any further details. Local Arabic website al Masdar Online said the strike hit a presumed al Qaeda site. It reported there were no casualties. Access for reporters to the southern province is currently severely limited due to ongoing Yemeni military operations against AQAP.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Al Bayda province
References: Associated Press, al Masdar Online (Ar)

August 2 2014
An AQAP propaganda film said the group’s deceased second-in-command, Saeed al Shehri, was killed by US drones in 2013, not in 2012 as previously thought. A previously released eulogy had said al Shehri had succumbed to injuries sustained in a 2012 strike – most likely in September (YEM104) or October (YEM109). The exact date of his death is unknown.

The propaganda video, the third of a three-part documentary about his life and death, said al Shehri had survived several US attacks. The earliest was said to be in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Al Shehri ‘was prisoner number 327 at Guantanamo Bay, captured as he tried to cross the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan late in 2001.’ He was released to a rehabilitation programme in Saudi Arabia in 2007. But he absconded and joined AQAP.

Al Shehri was infamous for dying in drone strikes, only to reappear alive and well. It is not clear if the reports of al Shehris’ death were the product of overoptimistic officials briefing the media, or if AQAP deliberately put out misinformation about their commander’s demise.

The first reported attempt to kill al Shehri in Yemen was September 21 2011 (YEM029). The AQAP propaganda video reports drones targeted al Shehri a second time “six or seven months” later. This would be approximately in March 2012 though it is not clear if this is the case. And it is not clear which strike could have targeted al Shehri – more confirmed US attacks, killing more people, hit Yemen in March that year than in any other calendar month. The third attempt to kill al Shehri, according to the video, was in September or October 2012. He reportedly lost his right eye, an ear and part of his skull in this attack.

Location: Yemen
References: AQAP propaganda video (via Jihadology)

YEM166

August 9 2014
♦ 3 people killed
♦ 2 people injured, both reportedly women

Three people were killed in a US drone strike in the central Marib province. The dead were allegedly members of AQAP. Two women were also reportedly injured in the strike which was said to have targeted a house. The house reporedly belonged to a local man who had rented it to three men from Saada province in the north west of the country.

Two unnamed Yemeni official told AFP and Reuters the attack as a drone strike. However an anonymous official would not specify if the attack was by US drone or Yemen jet when talking to AP. The strike came a day after AQAP fighters beheaded 14 captured Yemeni soldiers. They were killed because they were fighting AQAP in the eastern province of Hadramout, the armed group said in a statement. And the attack came the day before Yemen Air Force jets reportedly targeted al Qaeda training camps in the eastern province of Hadramout.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: WAdi Abida, Marib province
References: Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, Xinhua, Asharq al Awsat, al Madina (Ar), Anadolu (Ar), Yemen Online

YEM167

August 16 2014

♦ 3 people reported killed

A possible US drone strike killed three people in Yemen’s eastern Hadramout province on Saturday. The dead were reported as suspected AQAP members. An unnamed local official told Reuters: “the three armed men were travelling in a vehicle along a desert stretch between Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s border when the drone shot two rockets at them. All three are dead”.

A Yemeni intelligence official said that the three alleged militants were killed instantly. A local military official told Xinhua that the vehicle was heading towards an alleged military training camp, where “scores of al Qaeda militants” were gathering.

Type of strike: Possible US drone strike
Location: Hadramout province
References: Reuters, The Guardian, Xinhua, Long War Journal

YEM167C
August 16 2014
♦ Casualties unknown

In the south of Yemen there were possibly two strikes on Saturday. It is not clear from initial reports if they were air strikes or drone strikes and whether they were carried out by US forces or the Yemeni government. The location of the strikes is also unclear.

A Yemeni security official said that two separate airstrikes in the south killed seven suspected militants.

The Bureau will not be including details of this strike in our data until more information is available.

Type of strike: Possible air strike
Location: Abyan province
References:Associated Press, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, IANS

YEM168

September 11 2014

♦ 4-5 people reported killed

On Thursday a US drone strike reportedly killed four or five people. A local government official told AFP that they were AQAP suspects who were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle.

An unnamed military source told Anadolu Agency: “The drone struck a car carrying Al-Qaeda members in the Bejan district [of Shabwah].”

Witnesses in #Shabwa: #US drone killed five suspected #AQAP militants today in Bayhan district #Yemen.
— Saeed Al-Batati (@saeedalBatati) September 11, 2014

The dead were identified in reports the following day:

Abdullah Ahmed Salem Mubarak (aka Abu Habbah)
Abu Khaled al Awlaki
Abu Kaab
Saif al Shehri – a Saudi citizen
Saud al Daghari

According to the Long War Journal: “Abu Habbah is a known nom de guerre of an important AQAP leader in southern Yemen.”

The Yemeni military discovered a cache of documents during its recent offensive in southern Yemen. These documents identified Habbah as “the military emir of Mahfad and its environs,” Long War Journal reported.

The defence ministry said the attack was carried out by the Yemen Air Force (YAF). However the YAF is not capable to carry out a precision strike on a moving vehicle. It is incapable of flying at night, according to President Hadi, and has been described to the Bureau as “barely functional” and having insufficient equipment and training to defend its own airspace.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Shabwa province
References: AFP, Xinhua, Anadolu Agency, Yemen Economist (Ar), Long War Journal

YEM16

September 25 2014

♦ 4-5 people killed

Four men died in a strike on a vehicle in Shabwa, southeastern Yemen. They were allegedly members of AQAP. A local tribal leader told Xinhua: “The air strike targeted the al Qaeda elements while they were driving toward their hideout Thursday afternoon at around 3.30pm local time.” The vehicle was reportedly destroyed and tribal sources said charred remains were visible inside the wreckage. The attack hit near Nissab, west of Ataq, capital of Shabwa province.

Two people killed in the strike were later identified in Arabic press and social media accounts linked to al Qaeda faction Ansar al Sharia. Two alleged AQAP commanders Adel Hardaba and Muhader Ahmad Muhader reportedly died in the attack. Two more of the dead were identified in the Gulf News: Esmail Mohammad Ahmad al Qaisi, 30, and Othman Mohsin al Daghari.

Type of strike: Possible drone strike
Location: Nissab near Ataq, Shabwa province
References: Xinhua, AFP, EFE (Ar), Erem News (Ar), Long War Journal, Gulf News, Al Shorfa

YEM170

September 26 2014

♦ 2-3 reported killed
♦ 3 children reported injured

The second drone strike in two days reportedly left three children in hospital after destroying a car of alleged AQAP fighters.

The children were reportedly siblings and were injured when the strike targeted a car near their home. Two or three alleged AQAP members were killed.

An anonymous local official told Gulf News: “The car was carrying al Qaeda militants and driving in the a desert area between Mareb and Jawf. The drone launched a rocket when the car reached the village, killing three people and injuring three children.”

The children’s father said: “I swear to God that I have no connection with al Qaida. Why did not the drone target the car when it was in the desert?” The children are a boy aged 12 and two girls aged eight and five. They were treated in a hospital in Mareb province for shrapnel injuries in their legs and pelvis.

An alleged al Qaeda social media propagandist was reportedly killed in the attack. Abd al Aziz al Omari (aka Muslim al Azdi, Abu Omar al Kholani, or Abu Muslim al Kholani), a Saudi, controlled various social media sites critical of US drone strikes in Yemen, one of which reportedly confirmed his death.

Terrorists launched a rocket attack on the Yemeni embassy on September 27, reportedly in revenge for this drone strike. Ansar al Sharia, a faction of AQAP, claimed the attack on twitter. Fighters from the group fired an anti-tank missile at the embassy, killing and wounding several members of the Yemeni security forces.

The attack was reportedly carried out by US drones. The attack would appear to have been beyond the ability of the Yemen Air Force which lacks the capacity to launch precision strikes at night – the strike hit in the evening of September 26 and hit a moving vehicle

Type of strike: Airstrike, possible drone strike
Location: Khasaf, al Jawf province
References: Gulf News, Xinhua, Long War Journal, Reuters, Long War Journal

YEM171

October 15 2014

♦ 4 reported killed

Four people were killed in an alleged US drone strike on a vehicle in the southern Shabwa province. The dead were allegedly al Qaeda members. One was identified as Mahdi Badas (aka Abu Hussein) by local sources and the Yemeni defence ministry. He was reportedly a local leader in the group.

The others were identified by Sanaa-based, freelance journalist Iona Craig, as: Musab al Wawari, Fares Azunjubari and Hudhaifah al Azdi (KSA).

Names given of those killed in US drone strike in Shabwa: Abu Hussein Ba Das, Musab al-Wawari, Fares Azunjubari and Hudhaifah al-Azdi (KSA)

— Iona Craig أيونا (@ionacraig) October 15, 2014

An anonymous Yemeni official told Xinhua: “The air raid was conducted by a US drone plane which targeted small pick-up truck in the Shabwa province, killing four people inside who are suspected to be members of al Qaeda terrorist group.” Pictures of the wreckage were widely reported on traditional and social media:

صورة لسيارة المقصوفة قبل قليل في #شبوة بطائرة صليبية بدون طيار pic.twitter.com/Hzi0dS5qek

— شؤون يمنية (@yemen__AFFAIR) October 15, 2014

The strike comes at a time of high tension in the country. Houthi separatists took control of the capital Sanaa in mid-September. There has since been tense negotiations between the government and separatists. The Houthis have continued to take control of cities and provinces, including the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. On October 9 al Qaeda killed at least 47 in a horrific suicide bombing in Sanaa, targeting the Houthis.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Bani Assaf, Mayfaa district, Shabwa
References: Xinhua, AFP, Yemen Akhbar (Ar), Reuters, al Masdar Online (Ar), Aden al Ghad (Ar), Aden al Ghad (Ar), Mareb Press (Ar), Aden Post (Ar), Barakish (Ar), Twitter, Twitter (Ar)

YEM172

October 24 2014

♦ 3-10 reported killed
♦ 0-10 civilians reported killed

Between three and ten people were reported killed when a suspected US drone struck near where clashes were taking place between al Qaeda-linked fighters, Sunni tribesmen, and the Shiite Houthi group.

Reuters put the death toll at three, citing tribal sources, whilst AFP and Al Jazeera put it at 10. It was not clear if the dead in the strike were al Qaeda terrorists, or tribesmen embroiled in sectarian clashes with the Houthis. Reuters and AFP said the strike killed al Qaeda members. However Middle East Monitor reported the strike hit “positions belonging to fighters from Radaa tribes while battles raged with the Houthis”. And an al Jazeera reporter in Yemen said: “It is not clear if the victims are in fact al Qaeda fighters,” reported Omar al Saleh. “Some sources are telling us they could be tribesmen.”

Yemen’s already poor security situation has deteriorated further in recent weeks following the Houthi group’s September push in to Sanaa, the capital. The group has clashed with Sunni fighters, including al Qaeda-linked ones, in different parts of the country.

Type of strike: Possible drone strike
Location: Radaa, the al Manasseh area, al Bayda province
References: Reuters, AFP, Al Jazeera, Middle East Monitor, Middle East Eye, Aden Post (Ar), Almasdar Online (Ar)

YEM173

October 26 2014

♦ 12-20 reported killed
♦ 2-10 civilians reported killed, including children

US drones reportedly hit near Radaa in al Bayda province for the second time in three days. Scores of US drone strikes, US air strikes with conventional jets, and Yemen Air Force strikes reportedly targeted the central al Bayda province on this day. However it has not been possible to tally the full extent of the strikes, and disaggregating who was responsible. There were reports the Yemeni army used indiscriminate artillery weapons in the attacks as well.

The attacks reportedly killed civilians, including women and children. But it was not clear exactly how many people died in the drone attack. Two women were reportedly killed in a drone strike on a building. They were pulled from the rubble the following day.

Unnamed tribesmen told Reuters the Yemeni army hit AQAP and local tribes in the area with air strikes, artillery and Katyusha rockets. Katyusha rocket launchers are multiple-launch rocket artillery systems, usually mounted on the back of trucks. The International Committee of the Red Cross says Katyusha are “indiscriminate in certain or all contexts” and includes it on a list of weapons including chemical weapons, land mines and land mines.

A tribal source said: “Around 10 civilians were killed and a number were injured, including women and children… But because it is dark and due to the continuing clashes, we were unable to retrieve all the victims.”

Type of strike: Possible drone strike with Yemeni air and ground operations
Location: Radaa, al Bayda province
References: AFP, Reuters, Almasdar Online (Ar), Almasdar Online (Ar), Mareb Press (Ar), Almasdar Online (Ar), Yemen Times, Anadolu Agency

YEM174

November 4 2014

♦ 9-20 reported killed

Three US drone strikes left at least nine and as many as 20 people dead, including two named alleged senior AQAP fighters. The strikes hit several vehicles near Radaa, the main town in the central province of al Bayda.

The strike reportedly killed Nabil al Dahab and Shawki al Badani, allegedly a senior figure in AQAP. The Yemeni government had put out a reward for $100,000 for details of his whereabouts and he was included on a US list of specially designated terrorist. He was wanted by the US as he “reportedly assigned an AQAP operative to target the US embassy in Sanaa”. He had also “been described as being connected” to a savage suicide bombing that killed more than 100 people in May 2012.

Al Badani was added to the list in June 2014, nearly six months after the US said he was the intended target of a botched drone strike on December 12 2013 that erroneously attacked a wedding party.

Al Dahab was reportedly AQAP’s leader in al Bayda province. The US had tried to kill him in May 2012 with his brother Qaed Ahmad Nasser al Dahab but both escaped. They were Anwar al Awlaki’s brothers in law after their sister married the US born preacher.

Nabil al Dahab and his family had allied itself with al Qaeda and the US had made several attempts to kill various members of the family in 2012 and 2013. In August 2013 they did kill Qaed, allegedly then the AQAP commander in al Bayda as well as the group’s “spiritual leader” and a military commander “who had previously fought with the group in Iraq”.

Both were “known for the training and indoctrination of suicide bombers” according to an unnamed intelligence officer.

The land around Radaa was the scene of bloody sectarian fighting between Shiite armed groups and al Qaeda and Sunni militias. It was therefore a challenging area to report from and the details of these three air strikes are not clear. It has not been possible to disaggregate the death tolls of the three so they are recorded here as a single incident.

Some media sources did not report all three attacks. One carried details on just one strike. However, where it has been possible to make a comparison, the descriptions of the strikes overlap. The first attack appears to have targeted a truck carrying around alleged al Qaeda fighters. The second and third strikes reportedly targeted two convoys of vehicles.

The dead were mostly reported as AQAP fighters. However one source said the dead were tribal fighters and AQAP fighters – implying some of the dead were from the Sunni tribes fighting with al Qaeda against the Shiite Houthi group in al Bayda province. The Houthis took control of Sanaa in September and Yemen’s security situation deteriorated yet further this month as the group’s fighters have pushed in to new territory like al Bayda.

This was the third consecutive strike in the province since the Houthis reportedly moved into the area around Radaa on October 14. It is the scene of ongoing battles between the Houthis, a Shiite group, and AQAP and local Sunni militias. These sectarian clashes reportedly claimed the lives of as many as 22 Houthis in a series of attacks by Sunni fighters late the previous day.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Radaa area, al Bayda province
References: Reuters, AFP, Anadolu Agency, Reuters, Yemen Alaam (Ar), Sahfah.net (Ar), Sahfah.net (Ar), Xinhua, CNN, US State Department, Al Monstasaf (Ar), palfx.info (Ar), Wefaq Press (Ar)

YEM174C

November 11-12 2014

♦ Unknown casualties

French news agency AFP reported two possible extra US drone strikes late on November 11 or early November 12. The agency reported:

Tribal sources reported that two other drone strikes were carried out overnight in the same area but they were unable to say if the attacks caused any casualties.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Shabwa province
References: AFP

YEM175

November 12 2014

♦ 6-8 reported killed

Six, seven or eight alleged AQAP fighters were killed in southern Yemen. The target of the strike varied depending on the source. The men were killed either when driving in a Toyota Hilux to carry out an attack, while gathered under a tree before setting off to carry out an attack, or when US drones attacked a “militant hideout“.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Azzam, Shabwa province
References: Reuters, AFP, Associated Press, IANS/Xinhua

YEM175C
November 24 2014

♦ 0 reported killed

A possible drone strike reportedly failed to kill Mehdi Salah al-Mansouri, “prominent tribal chief” according to an unnamed security official:

The aerial raid targeted the tribal chief, along with two of his companions, but only the rear end of the car was damaged.

This strike was not widely reported and was subsequently contradicted by another anonymous Yemeni official who said it was not a drone strike but that a bomb was attached to the car.

Location: Radaa, al Bayda
References: Anadolu Agency, Slaati (Ar)

YEM176

November 25 2014

♦ 7 reported killed

US special forces carried out a hostage rescue mission in Hadramout, freeing eight captives and killing seven AQAP in the process.

The US commandos, from the Joint Special Operations Command, rescued six Yemeni hostages as well as one Ethiopia and one Saudi. However it transpired a US citizen was the target of the rescue mission. The journalist, whose name has not been withheld at the request of his family, was moved to a new location two days before this operation.

According to Yemen-based freelance reporter Iona Craig, the captors also held, and moved, “a British oil-worker, kidnapped in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in February was also believed to be amongst the group, along with an Iranian diplomat and the Saudi Arabian deputy consul, snatched in Aden in March 2012.”

It was originally reported as a Yemeni operation. However it subsequently emerged that “about two dozen” US commandos carried out the raid with “a small number of American-trained Yemeni counterterrorism troops,” according to the New York Times.

The combined force flew into the remote Hagr al Saiaar area near the Saudi border in Hadramout province by helicopter and approached the cave on foot where the hostages were held. A fire-fight ensued before the soldiers and freed captives were flown to safety.

The operation “appeared to be at least partly an attempt to bolster the stature” of the Yemeni president Abd Rabbo Mansoor Hadi, the New York Times reported. It was organised within two weeks of President Hadi asking the US for help, an anonymous US official told the paper.

This was the second joint US-Yemeni special forces raid reported in Yemen this year. In April (YEM161) US and Yemeni forces reportedly ambushed alleged al Qaeda fighters as they drove through Shabwa province. Three or four people died, including one child.

Type of strike: US special forces raid with Yemeni special forces
Location: Hagr al Saiaar, Hadramout province
References: Associated Press, New York Times, New York Times, ABC News, Associated Press, Beacon

YEM177
December 6 2014

♦ 9-10 reported killed
♦ 3 people injured

A US drone strike killed at least nine people in the early hours of Saturday December 6. It was not clear exactly what was targeted in the attack. An unnamed security official said it was a “suspected militant hideout” while a tribal chief said the strike hit a gathering of 13 alleged AQAP fighters, killing 10 and injuring three.

Type of strike: US drone strike
Location: Nasab directorate, Shabwa province
References: Anadolu Agency, Associated Press, AFP, Xinhua

YEM178

December 6 2014

♦ 11 reported killed
♦ 8 civilians reported killed, including one woman and one child

A night raid by US special forces mission failed to free two hostages from AQAP. Both hostages were reported killed by their captors while US soldiers attacked the house where they were being held. Eleven others were killed in the attack including a woman and 10-year old child.

There are differing narratives of exactly what happened but by the end 13 people were reported dead, including the two hostages who died of their injuries.

Photojournalist Luke Somers, 33, was a UK-born US citizen. He was being held hostage with South African teacher Pierre Korkie, 56, in southeastern Shabwa province. Somers was the target of the US rescue mission on November 25 however both he and Korkie were moved before US and Yemeni special forces could get to them.

The raid reportedly unfolded after midnight on December 6. US military sources said around 40 US special forces were inesrted into Shabwa province about 9 miles from where the hostages were held. They attempted a rescue but lost the element of surprise and during a firefight both of the hostages were reportedly shot by an AQAP fighter.

However an influential tribal chief, an unnamed eye witness and an anonymous Yemeni security official described a much larger attack. The security official said jets, helicopters and drones supported US and Yemeni ground forces in an assault on the village where the hostages were held. Tarek al Daghari, the leader of the influential al Awlaki tribe in Shabwa, told online publication Middle East Eye:

“Some of the villagers were awakened by the explosions, they looked out of their windows and the Americans shot them dead. They [the American and Yemeni soldiers] shot anyone who was close to the house that the hostages were in and raided at least four homes.”

Al Daghari said four houses belonging to a local family were targeted. One house belonged to Sheikh Mubarak al Daghari, 24, an alleged AQAP member responsible for the kidnapping. Abu Bakr Saleh al-Dahgari witnessed the raid said he did not know the hostages were in a home in the village.

Somers was kidnapped by AQAP in September 2013 from Sanaa. He was a freelance photojournalist working for local and international media from Yemen’s capital. The US tried to rescue him on November 26 but AQAP moved Somers before the US commandoes arrived. The group released a statement after that raid threatening to kill Somers, warning “Obama and the American government of the consequences of proceeding ahead in any other foolish action.”

Somers’ family said they were kept in the dark about the raid, telling The Times they found out Somers had been killed from the FBI.

Korkie and his wife Yolande were kidnapped from the streets of Taiz in May 2013. Yolande was released without a ransome paid in January 2014 after negotiations by Gift of the Givers, a South African charity with an office in Yemen.

Gift of the Givers said it had succesfully negotiated an agreement with AQAP to release Pierre Korkie. He was reportedly due to be freed on December 7. The charity said it had agreed to pay $200,000 “facillitation fee” for his release. AQAP had orignially asked for $3m but had reportedly agreed to cut this when it was made clear that Korkie’s family could not afford this.

The sum was cut to $700,000 in October, the New York Times reported. It was reduced further after tribal negotiators traveling to meet with AQAP were killed in a US drone strike. AQAP reportedly promised to split the money with the families of the dead negotiators. It is not clear which drone strike killed the men however an attack in Shabwa province on November 12 is geographically most likely.

Imtiaz Sooliman, the charity’s founder, said he did not blame the US for Korkie’s death. And the Korkie family spokesman told Reuters: “There is no accusation towards anybody. Mrs Korkie is not in a position to say they [US] were wrong… Mrs Korkie, as a Christian, applies the biblical principle of forgiving… even for his captors.”

The Yemen government was aware of the negotiations to release Korkie, according to Sooliman: “At all times, the Yemeni government was informed about our actions on the ground,” Sooliman told the Associated Press. “We didn’t do anything in isolation from them.”

The US said it knew nothing of the negotiations, or that Korkie was even present in the house with Somers. However an unnamed senior Yemeni intelligence official told the Associated Press that Yemeni authorities knew about negotiations and an “exchange of information” about the hostage took place two weeks ago in the presence of US officials.

Type of strike: US special forces raid, possible US air and drone strike
Location: Dafaar, Shabwa province
References: New York Times, Associated Press, Middle East Eye, The Times (£), Al Jazeera America, Middle East Eye, Washington Post, Gift of the Givers, ABC News, Reuters, Washington Post, The Times (£), AFP, RTE, US Government