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US assassination drone strike kills four in Yemen

A US MQ-1 Predator drone ©Reuters

At least four people have lost their lives in a US assassination drone strike in the Yemeni province of Hadhramaut.

A local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that the drone hit a sports utility vehicle near the provincial capital city of al-Mukalla, located some 800 kilometers (497 miles) southeast of the capital, Sana’a, the night before.

The official noted that the assault targeted suspected al-Qaeda militants.

The overnight strike followed a similar attack three days earlier, which killed four suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants as they were travelling in a car on the tarmac of the Riyan Mukalla airport.

On August 26, a drone strike killed at least five suspected al-Qaeda militants traveling in a car in the southern port city.

Al-Qaeda militants have stepped up their activities amid Saudi Arabia’s relentless military aggression against the impoverished Arab country and the ongoing conflict pitting the Houthi Ansarullah fighters against militiamen loyal to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

An armed Yemeni man walks atop the ruins of buildings destroyed in a Saudi airstrike in the capital, Sana’a, on September 10, 2015. ©AFP

Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the revolutionary Ansarullah movement and restore power to Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Nearly 4,500 people have been killed in the Yemeni conflict, the World Health Organization said on August 11. Local Yemeni sources, however, say the fatality figure is much higher.

Washington has been conducting targeted killings through the remotely-controlled armed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

The US says the airstrikes target members of al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have in most cases been the victims of the attacks.

The United Nations says the US drone attacks are “targeted killings” that flout international law.


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