SANAA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. air strike targeted a suspected al-Qaida group in Yemen's southeastern province of al- Bayda on Monday, killing at least two people, a security official said.
"The U.S. air strike targeted a vehicle in Almasanih district of Radda city, killing a Yemeni militant and a Syrian national," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The official declined to elaborate further. Several al-Qaida hideouts are well-known based in Radda city since earlier last year.
The al-Qaida group seized parts of Radda, some 170 km southeast of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, in January 2011, but they left the town later after reaching a deal with the central government.
The United States has beefed up anti-terror cooperation with the Yemeni government since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February, after a year of political upheaval that allowed the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to capture several cities in the south.
The militants were recently either captured or hunted by the security authorities after a U.S.-backed offensive earlier this year routed the militants out of their strongholds in the neighboring southern province of Abyan.
|
