Another US drone strike, the fourth since Monday morning, was launched today against northern Yemen, destroying a vehicle in the Jawf Province and killed at least four people.
The Yemeni military has been unable to confirm any of the victims, but claimed one was Ali Juraym, a local who had once fought against US occupation forces in Iraq. The others were dubbed “al-Qaeda suspects.”
As with most claims of high profile militant leaders being slain, there is no record of Ali Juraym having been a militant of note anywhere in the past, or indeed any media mention of him at all before his death.
The increase in US strikes comes amid growing disquiet about the number of unidentified victims in their attacks, and indeed those times when the victims were identified, as with the December strike on a Yemen wedding, which killed 12 civilians.