U.S. drone kills 4 suspected al-Qaida members in Yemen

At least four suspected al-Qaida members were killed in an overnight U.S. drone strike on a convoy in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa, a security source told Xinhua Saturday.

"An unmanned U.S. drone fired missiles on an al-Qaida convoy in Bayhan region of Shabwa province late on Friday night, killing at least four terrorists at the scene, " the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

A tribal leader confirmed the attack, saying "an unexpected U.S. bombing targeted the al-Qaida convoy of two cars before they were about to gather for a meeting in the rugged village of Bayhan."

"The bombing killed some local commanders of the group, including unidentified foreigners," the source added.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009 by unifying al-Qaida branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on some Western countries.

The United States has carried out more than one hundred rounds of drone strikes in Yemen against the AQAP since 2011, but its operations were halted after the Shiite Houthi group took over the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in September 2014. The United States closed its embassy in Yemen this month, but insisted that it would not suspend anti-terror operations there. Endit