Via LWJ:

US drones launched the first strike in Yemen in a month, killing four “militants” in an attack on a vehicle carrying explosives in a southern town plagued by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers launched several missiles at a truck “carrying grenades and explosive belts” in the Al Mahfad area in the southern province of Abyan on Friday night, AFP reported. Four suspected members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were killed in the airstrike.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters and leaders regrouped in the Al Mahfad area after being driven from cities such as Zinjibar, Jaar, Lawdar, and Shaqra during a Yemeni military offensive that began in the spring of 2012 [see Threat Matrix report, AQAP regroups in Abyan province]. AQAP controlled the cities in Abyan, as well as other cities and towns in neighboring Shabwa province after launching their own offensive in 2011.

Since losing control of large areas of Abyan and Shabwa, AQAP has spread out into the provinces of Aden, Al Baydah, Al Jawf, Damar, Hadramout, Hodeida, Ibb, Marib, Saada, and Sana’a. Of the 29 drones strikes recorded by The Long War Journal over the past 11 months, 25 of them have taken place in the provinces of Aden, Al Baydah, Al Jawf, Damar, Hadramout, Hodeida, Ibb, Marib, Saada, and Sana’a.