Drone strikes al-Qaeda in Yemen

ADEN: Three suspected al-Qaeda members were killed in an apparent US drone strike in Yemen’s Jihadist-held southeastern port city of Mukalla, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.
The drone “fired four missiles at three al-Qaeda militants” near Mukalla port late on Tuesday, killing them on the spot, said the official.
A “leading figure” within al-Qaeda was among the dead, the official said, without naming him.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has exploited months of fighting in Yemen between Iran-backed rebels and their Saudi-backed rivals to consolidate its grip on Hadramawt«s provincial capital Mukalla — a city of more than 200,000.
The United States considers AQAP the extremist group’s deadliest global franchise and regularly targets its militants with armed drone strikes on Yemeni territory.
It is the only government that operates the unmanned aircraft over the impoverished country. Saudi Arabia and its regional allies have been carrying out air strikes on the rebels since late March to try to restore exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to power.