Sanaa, December 24: Yemeni forces killed 34 suspected Al-Qaeda members, including senior leaders, in a dawn raid Thursday in a remote mountainous region of Yemen’s Shabwa province, a security source said.
“The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh,” said the source, referring to a rugged location about 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the Yemeni capital.
The head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wahishi and his deputy, Saeed al-Saudi Shahrani, were present at the meeting, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He added that “members of the group’s leadership, including Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Omir, were among those killed.”
The source was unable to say what had happened to Wahishi or his deputy, but he indicated that Omir had recently appeared in a video made of a public meeting in southern Abyan province.
“Yemeni forces launched the raid based on information from Yemeni citizens, who told authorities the location of the meeting in Wadi Rafadh,” a second security source said.
A December 17 Yemeni air strike on one of the group’s training camps in Abyan province killed 34 Al-Qaeda members, according to the Yemeni government.
A local official and a tribal source said that 49 civilians, including 23 women and 17 children, were among those killed in that strike.
On the same day, four members of Al-Qaeda were killed in Abhar, about 35 kilometres north of Sanaa, in what the authorities presented as preventative operations against Al-Qaeda members planning attacks.
Thursday’s strike brings the Yemeni government’s tally of Al-Qaeda members killed over the last eight days to 68.
More than 30 Al-Qaeda members have been arrested since the December 17 strike, the Yemeni defence ministry said.
The New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama approved firepower, intelligence and other support for Yemen’s efforts against Al-Qaeda.
—Agencies