Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
8 Yemenis Killed in US Drone Attacks, 10 Killed in Explosions

January 20, 2013

U.S. drone strikes kill 8 al-Qaida suspects in central Yemen

SANAA, Jan. 20, 2013 (Xinhua) --

An unmanned warplane killed at least eight al-Qaida suspects in three successive airstrikes late on Saturday in Yemen's central province of Marib, government and tribal officials said Sunday.

"Multiple airstrikes on Wadi Abida in Marib on Saturday night destroyed two vehicles carrying members of the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and killed about eight operatives," an official at the provincial Criminal Investigation Unit in Marib told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

According to tribal sources, the first drone strike targeted a vehicle parking at an orchard owned by a tribesman suspected of having links with an al-Qaida local network in al-Masil area of Wadi Abida in Marib, but it missed the target and caused no casualties.

Half an hour later, the same warplane fired a missile near the same vehicle when two militants were inspecting the previous strike, killing both of them.

The third strike occurred an hour later at midnight about one mile away from al-Masil area, killing six al-Qaida operatives onboard a military vehicle, which the militants seized from the army during clashes last month.

"The trio airstrikes came 20 days after the leader of AQAP Nasser al-Wihaishy signed a truce deal mediated by clerics with the Yemeni government to halt attacks on local interests," said Abdel Razak al-Jamal, a Yemeni researcher and expert on the AQAP affairs.

"The clerics have then promised al-Wihaishy to persuade the government to sign the truce deal within 20 days... the mediators are still waiting for the government to ink the deal and until now there has been no response yet, but U.S. drone strikes," he said.

An official at the presidential office confirmed to Xinhua about the ongoing talks on a proposed truce with the al-Qaida wing. "Condition provided by the terrorist group make the government have no alternative solution but to continue the airstrikes," the official said, declining to further elaborate.

Dozens of angry tribesmen in Marib, Yemen's main oil reserves about 170 km northeast of the capital Sanaa, gathered early Sunday in the main highway linking the province with Sanaa and blocked it to protest against the overnight airstrikes which they said were shaking their homes and frightening their children.

The highway is the key route to provide petroleum supplies to Sanaa and the other provinces, which have been suffering prolonged oil shortages because of repeated attacks on the Marib's main oil pipeline, for which the government blamed the tribal militants.

The fresh air raids were the second of such attacks since the beginning of this year, after a U.S. drone strike killed three suspected al-Qaida operatives in Yemen's southern province of al- Bayda on Jan. 3.

Dozens of al-Qaida operatives have been killed in an increasing airstrikes since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi 's election in February 2012, after a yearlong unrest weakened the control of the central government and allowed the militants to take over swaths of territory in the south.

The Yemeni government managed to recapture several of those southern cities in May last year.

Editor: Deng Shasha

Blast, drone kill 13 al Qaeda-linked militants in Yemen

Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:53am EST

SANAA (Reuters) -

More than 10 suspected al Qaeda operatives were killed by an explosion in a house in south Yemen where they were making bombs and at least three others died in a drone strike, tribal and official sources said on Sunday.

A bomb ripped through a house in the province of al-Bayda on Saturday night, the state news agency Saba and a local official said. Three other suspected militants were killed in a drone strike in the central province of Maarib, also on Saturday, tribal sources and the Ministry of Defence said.

Yemen's government has been fighting a powerful branch of al Qaeda that took advantage of chaos in the impoverished state two years ago during a popular uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is considered by Western governments to be one of the most active and dangerous wing of the global network founded by Osama bin Laden, and has attempted a number of attacks against U.S. targets.

The house destroyed in al Bayda had been used for making bombs, an official from the area told Reuters on Sunday.

"We heard a massive explosion that terrified people and when we went to the house it was destroyed and everyone there was dead," the official said.

In Maarib, a pilotless plane carried out two strikes against a car, a witness said.

"One of the strikes missed the target and the other hit the car and left the bodies of the three people in it completely charred," the witness told Reuters by telephone from the area.

He said unidentified people evacuated the bodies while tribesmen blocked the main road linking the capital of Maarib province with Sanaa on Saturday after the strikes.

The Yemeni Defence Ministry said in an SMS text message that a number of militants were killed in two air strikes but gave no further details.

Earlier this month, dozens of armed tribesmen took to the streets in southern Yemen to protest drones they said killed innocent civilians and fed anger against the United States.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi spoke openly in favor of the strikes during a trip to the United States in September.

Praised by the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa as being more effective against al Qaeda than his predecessor, Hadi was quoted as saying in September that he personally approved every attack. Hadi has not commented on the most recent strikes.

AQAP offshoot, Ansar al-Sharia (Partisan of Islamic Law), seized a number of towns in the south in 2011 but Yemeni government forces retook the areas in a U.S.-backed offensive in June.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush; Editing by Sami Aboudi, Alison Williams and Jason Webb)

 

4 killed in U.S. drone strike in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 10, 2013 (Xinhua) --

At least four people were killed and several others injured in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's northwest tribal region of North Waziristan on Thursday morning, reported local media Express.

U.S. drones fired four missiles at a suspected militant hideout in Eissu Khel village in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

The house was completely destroyed in the strike, said the report, adding the identities of the victims are not yet known.

This is the second strike in the village recently. On Tuesday, U.S. drones fired two missiles at a house, killing at least three suspected militants including an al-Qaida-linked operative.

Thursday's strike is the 6th of its kind in Pakistan in 2013. At least 42 suspected militants have been killed in such strikes so far this year.

Editor: Hou Qiang