ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Three militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot were killed in a U.S. military drone strike while traveling on a motorcycle in the southern province of Abyan on Thursday evening, a security official told Xinhua.
The three al-Qaida men died immediately on the outskirts of Mudiyah town in Abyan province after they were struck with a missile while riding their motorcycle in the rugged area, said the security source on condition of anonymity.
The security source based in Abyan said that one of the slain al-Qaida elements was a local leader for the militant group, but he didn't mention his name.
Thursday's U.S air raid coincided with the ongoing anti-terror military operations against Yemen's al-Qaida branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Abyan.
The U.S. military has carried out several airstrikes against AQAP fighters in different provinces of the war-torn Arab country since U.S President Donald Trump approved expanded military operations against the group.
That included intensified overnight airstrikes and ground military raids against the al-Qaida hideouts in the mountainous areas of al-Bayda and southeastern province of Shabwa.
The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence, especially in southeastern provinces.
Yemen's government, allied with a Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels for control of the impoverished country.
UN statistics showed that more than 8,000 people have been killed in Yemen's conflict, most of them civilians, since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in 2015.
The impoverished Arab country is also suffering the world's largest cholera outbreak, where about 5,000 cases are reported every day.
