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(LWJ) — Dozens of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters were killed in a pair of airstrikes in the southern Yemeni cities of Jaar and Al Baydah over the past 24 hours. The strikes are suspected to have been carried out by US aircraft, however the reports have not been confirmed.
In the first strike, warplanes hit AQAP hideout in a rural area near Al Baydah, a city an the southern part of Baydah province near Abyan province, another terrorist stronghold, according to the Globe and Mail. Abdulwahhab al-Homaiqani, an AQAP commander in the city, and 16 of his fighters were reported to have been killed in the strike. Yemeni tribesmen said the attacks were “carried out by US drone airplanes.”
In the second strike, strike aircraft hit AQAP “hideouts” in Jaar, one of several cities and town under the terror group’s control in Abyan province. Twenty AQAP fighters were killed in the airstrikes, according to the Yemen Post.
The CIA and the US military’s Joint Special Operations Command are known to have carried out at least 18 air and missile strikes inside Yemen since December 2009. Other recent airstrikes are believed to have been carried out by the US also, but little evidence has emerged to directly link the attacks to the US.
The CIA has largely taken control of the strikes against AQAP in Yemen from the US military, which had been operating the program. The CIA wants to use the unmanned Predator and Reaper strike aircraft, which the US employs for strikes against terrorist groups based in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Previously, the US military has targeted AQAP in Yemen using cruise missiles and fixed-wing strike aircraft, although Predators are known to have been used in two of the strikes.