ADEN – A number of Al-Qaeda militants were killed when an air strike hit their training camps in a remote mountainous region of southern Yemen on Sunday, the defense ministry said, the second attack of its kind in two days. On Saturday an air strike killed 10 Al-Qaeda militants and three civilians in central Yemen. Yemen's defense ministry website quoted an official source on the High Security Committee as saying that an air strike hit the mountainous region between Al-Mahfad in Abyan province and Azzan in Shabwa after information that “terrorist elements were planning to target vital civilian and military installations.” The source did not say exactly how many people had been killed, but a local official told Reuters three suspected Al-Qaeda militants had died in the strike on Al-Mahfad. He did not know how many people had died in the Shabwa attack. The source said the militants targeted were among the “leading and dangerous” elements of Al-Qaeda and were of different nationalities. The exact nature of the strikes were unclear. The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against the Yemen-based AQAP. Yemen is among a handful of countries where the United States acknowledges using drones, but it does not comment on the practice. — Reuters
