Drone strike kills four alleged al-Qaeda militants in Yemen: sources

PanARMENIAN.Net - A drone attack killed four men suspected of belonging to al Qaeda in northern Yemen on Saturday, tribal sources said, as a U.S. campaign against the militants goes on amid a wider civil war in the country, Reuters reports.

Two missiles hit the men's car, killing all of them, tribesmen in the province of al-Jawf said by telephone. The four men were not immediately identified.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken advantage of a war pitting Houthi militiamen against forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to grab territory and operate more openly.

The group has carried out attacks against the Yemeni state for years of bomb, plotted to blow up U.S.-bound airliners and claimed responsibility for January's attack in Paris on a French magazine that killed 12 people.

The United States has kept up a drone campaign against the militants, although it evacuated the last of its military and intelligence personnel from Yemen in March. Its attacks have killed some of AQAP's top leaders, including its chief, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, in June.

The United States has acknowledged using drones but declines to comment on specific attacks, Reuters says.

Meanwhile, war between the Iran-allied Houthis and Yemeni fighters backed by a Saudi-led military coalition continues across the country. The alliance kept up a week of bombing on the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, pummeling military bases and rocket depots.

Yemen's warring factions will meet for peace talks in neighboring Oman next week, the United Nations and Yemeni officials said. The talks are the second major negotiations effort aimed at ending the war, which that has killed over 4,500 people and spread hunger and disease in one of the Arab world's poorest countries.