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

At least four al-Qaida members were killed in a U.S. drone strike launched in Yemen's southeastern province of al-Baydha on Tuesday, a military official told Xinhua.

The U.S. unmanned aircraft fired two missiles on a vehicle carrying members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot in tribal village of Dhabah that is located between southeastern al-Baydha and Shabwa provinces, the local military source said on condition of anonymity.

The vehicle was completely destroyed in the strike and about four suspected al-Qaida operatives were died and burned at the scene, the military source said.

Identities of the killed and wounded persons have not been known yet.

Earlier this month, scores of gunmen of the al-Qaida group seized two southern towns in the southern province of Abyan after launching well-coordinated attacks on pro-governmen forces.

The Abyan province, hometown of Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, is 45 km away from the port city of Aden, the country's temporary capital where he is residing in a well-guarded presidential palace.

The Yemen-based affiliates of the al-Qaida and the Islamic State terrorist groups and other armed groups are known to operate throughout the tribal areas of Shabwa, Abyan and al-Baydha provinces.

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), which emerged in January 2009 and also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions. Endit