ADEN: US fighter jets pounded Al-Qaeda targets in Yemen for a second straight day on Friday, killing eight militants, security and tribal sources said, as Washington steps up its air war against the jihadists, reports AFP.
The Pentagon said it had carried out more than 20 strikes on Thursday targeting Al-Qaeda positions in the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan and the central province of Baida.
Yemeni officials said at least 12 suspected militants were killed in those strikes, which came barely one month after a botched US commando raid against the group left multiple civilians and a Navy SEAL dead. In Friday’s strikes, US warplanes hit three houses in the Yashbam Valley before dawn, one of them the home of Al-Qaeda’s Shabwa province commander, Saad Atef, the tribal sources said.
Security officials in the area said eight jihadists were killed in the raids. Tribal sources said that women and children were also wounded.
The valley is a jihadist stronghold and was one of the targets of Thursday’s strikes.
Jihadists retaliated with anti-aircraft fire, security officials and tribal sources said, adding that US helicopters took part in the operation. One resident said it had been a “terrifying night.”
US President Donald Trump faced broad criticism at home after he authorised the January 29 commando raid during which Navy SEAL Ryan Owens was killed and multiple civilians perished. As many as eight women and eight children were killed, a Baida provincial official said, drawing condemnation of the raid from human rights groups.