US drone strike in Yemen kills five

A drone strike killed 5 suspected al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen by striking two vehicles, according to reports from the region.

Local officials in Yemen said the drone strike in Shabwa killed five suspected al Qaeda members in one car; there was no word on casualties in the second vehicle, The Associated Press reported.

Witnesses told Agence France-Press that the drone fired four missiles at the cars as they traveled through Saeed, the ancestral homeland of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born al Qaeda leader killed by a drone strike last year.

The U.S. has used drone strikes in Yemen to target its largest militant group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The United States has stepped up the number of drone strikes in both Yemen and Pakistan in the past year.

Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi told The Washington Post last week that he personally approves every U.S. drone strike in Yemen. It was the first time he acknowledged a direct role in U.S. drone strikes in Yemen.

Hadi, who took office after President Ali Abdullah Saleh was pushed out amid protests, said the drones have helped reverse al Qaeda’s gains in Yemen.

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