Monday, Nov. 8, 2010 file image taken from video and
released by SITE Intelligence Group, Anwar al-Awlaki speaks in a video
message posted on radical websites.
SANAA, Yemen – An
American drone strike in southern Yemen has killed seven Al
Qaeda-linked militants, including the media chief for the group's Yemeni
branch and the son of a prominent U.S.-born cleric slain in a similar
attack last month, government officials and tribal elders said Saturday.
In the capital, meanwhile, forces loyal to
embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on tens of thousands
of protesters, killing at least nine and wounding scores, according to
medical officials and witnesses.
The airstrike late Friday in the
southeastern province of Shabwa points to Washington's growing use of
drones to target Al Qaeda militants in Yemen. The missile attacks appear
to be part of a determined effort to stamp out the threat from the
group, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials
have said is the terror network's most active and most dangerous branch.
The Yemeni Defense Ministry identified the
slain media chief as Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana. Tribal elders in the
area also said the dead included Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki, the
21-year-old son of Anwar al-Awlaki, a gifted Muslim preacher and savvy
Internet operator who became a powerful Al Qaeda recruiting tool in the
West. He, along with another propagandist, Pakistani-American Samir
Khan, were killed in a Sept. 30 U.S. drone attack.
The tribal elders, who spoke Saturday on
condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals, said four other
members of the al-Awlaki clan also were killed in the drone attack.
There was no immediate confirmation of the younger al-Awlaki's death
from Yemeni authorities.
Security officials said the strike that
killed them was one of five carried out over night by an American drones
on suspected Al Qaeda positions in Shabwa and the neighboring province
of Abyan in Yemen's largely lawless south.
The first strike late Friday targeted a
house in the Azan district of Shabwa, but hit just after Al Qaeda
militants had a meeting in the building, security officials and tribal
elders said.
They said a second strike then targeted two
sport utility vehicles in which al-Bana and the six others were
traveling, destroying the vehicles and leaving the men's bodies charred.
It was not clear whether other participants in the meeting were
targeted in separate strikes.
AQAP has taken advantage of the political
turmoil roiling Yemen. Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than 30
years, has been struggling to stay in power in the face of eight months
of massive street protests demanding his ouster and the defection to
the opposition of key aides and military commanders.
Militants linked to AQAP have taken over
several cities in the south, raising fears that they could establish a
permanent stronghold in this strategically located nation. Yemen is
located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, on the doorstep of
Saudi Arabia and the oil-producing nations of the Gulf. It also
overlooks strategic sea routes leading to the Suez Canal.
In a separate development, the security
officials said suspected Al Qaeda militants bombed a key underground gas
pipeline that extends from the Balhaf area in Shabwa to an export
terminal on the Arabian Sea. The Friday night attack started a massive
fire, with columns of flames illuminating the night sky.
The security officials said non-Yemeni
employees of the French company running the gas field and pipeline in
Balhaf have been evacuated to Sanaa aboard three helicopters for their
safety. They had no more details.
In Sanaa, the medical officials and
witnesses said forces loyal to Saleh opened up on the protesters with
assault rifles and anti-aircraft guns. They said at least 180 people
were wounded. The wounded were ferried to hospital in ambulances and on
motorbikes. Gunfire could be heard in the area of the clashes well into
the afternoon.
In the Hassaba area of northern Sanaa,
anti-regime tribesmen and forces loyal to saleh were trading mortar
shells and rocket propelled grenades. The fighting, which began
overnight, killed one person and wounded six, all civilians.
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