A new statement from US Central Command is claiming to have killed 13 members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen’s Shabwah Province, in the course of three drone strikes over the past two weeks.
They offered few details, but these appear to be distinct from recent media reports of drone strikes, including one that killed six people on a farm in Maarib Province over the weekend. Officials had claimed those six were also AQAP fighters.
The US has few boots on the ground in Yemen these days, having withdrawn much of their force in early 2015. The drone strikes didn’t stop, however, which has raised questions about the reliability of their targeting without intelligence gathering forces in the area.
As usual, this report on the AQAP fighters killed did not include any information on the identities of those killed, suggesting that they may well not even know who they are killing in such attacks, but are labeling them AQAP as a matter of course.