Seven civilians die in Yemen air raids

AT LEAST seven civilians, including two children, were killed in two air raids that hit a Yemeni town controlled by al-Qaeda yesterday, an official and tribesmen said.

The raids were carried out at dawn, probably by a drone in Mahfed, which lies between the provinces of Abyan and Shabwa in Yemen’s south, the official said.

“The raids mistakenly hit the home of a family, killing seven members,” the official said.

A tribal source confirmed the raids, although he could not tell whether they were carried out by a drone or a fighter jet, and gave a toll of eight civilians killed, including four women and two children.

US strikes have taken out a number of senior al-Qaeda commanders in Yemen over the past year.

Washington considers the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the network’s deadliest franchise and has vowed no let-up in its war against the jihadists.

The US military said this month that it had killed six al-Qaeda fighters in three separate strikes in central Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen in March last year in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Shiite Huthi rebels has also turned its firepower on jihadists impeding the government’s bid to firm its grip on southern areas recaptured from insurgents.

The latest deadly strikes come after a wave of suicide bombings targeting Yemeni troops killed at least 42 people on Monday in the southeastern city of Mukalla, officials said, in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

Mukalla was under AQAP control for one year until pro-Hadi troops, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, drove the jihadists out in April.

AQAP, based in Yemen since 2009, and IS have exploited the power vacuum created by the conflict in the impoverished country to expand their presence in the south and southeast. – AFP