SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni tribal leaders say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed four alleged al-Qaida militants in the central province of Marib.

The tribal leaders said on Sunday that the alleged operatives’ charred bodies were later found after the unmanned aircraft targeted a house while they were inside in the district of al-Rawda. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, has long been considered the global network’s most dangerous branch and has attempted to carry out attacks on the U.S. mainland.

Yemen was plunged into civil war more than three years ago. Al-Qaida and an Islamic State affiliate have exploited the chaos to expand their presence in the country.</s>Ten suspectedAl-Qaeda jihadists and two soldiers fighting for Yemen's government have been killed in clashes and a drone strike, local officials and security sources said Sunday.

The US military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

Officials in Marab loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government said a drone on Sunday targeted a house used by Al-Qaeda in the central province, killing four jihadists.

Separately, six Al-Qaeda members and two pro-government soldiers were killed in clashes Friday following an attack on a jihadist site in southern Shabwa province, security sources said.

The United States considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to be the radical group's most dangerous branch.

A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.

AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the country's civil war, which pits the Saudi-backed government against Shiite Huthi rebels.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government's fight against the Huthis.

The conflict has pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine, triggering what the United Nations says is the world's worst single humanitarian crisis.</s>KARACHI - Police claimed to have arrested at least 35 accused persons including four militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda while recovered weapons from their possession.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed to have arrested four militants associated with a banded outfit while recovered weapons and militancy literature from their possession.

According to the details, CTD team conducted a raid in Pak Colony area while arrested four accused persons affiliated with Al-Qaeda identified as Qari Irfanullah, alias Usman, Muhammad Rizwan, Salik and Zubair. Police claimed to have recovered three pistols and literature from their possession.

Qari Irfanullah during the course of investigation revealed that he went to Afghanistan in 1998, and got militancy training in the camp of Harkat-ul-Mujahidin. The accused person join defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan sectarian outfit in 2001, from the Tariq Road Mosque Unit.

The accused persons confessed to have established his connections with Sarmad Siddiqui and Nadeem alias Burger alias Mullah, associated with Al-Qaeda. He said that he became a unit incharge of Tariq Road Unit in 2007. He used to get married with a sister of Malik Mumtaz accused allegedly involved in Rummy Club bomb blast. He said that Mumtaz have had arrested and released on bail while managed to hide in Afghanistan. The accused confessed to coordinate between the other members of Al-Qaeda and Malik Mumtaz.

Police claimed to have arrested at least 30 suspects in various raids and operations carried out in different parts of the city. The accused persons arrested were including six absconder, 15 proclaim offenders, street criminals, bandits and other criminals while recovered weapons and narcotics from their possession. Police claimed to have recovered a rifle, a Kalashnikov and six pistols.

Police said that the accused persons arrested were from different areas of the city.

Meanwhile, man stabbed to death his younger brother over family dispute here in the remits of Baldia Town police station. Police said the brothers including 24 years old Kashif and elder brother Sajid were collided over some family dispute while Sajid took the knife and stabbed his younger brother Kashif.

The culprit managed to flee while family took the Kashif to Hospital where he succumbed to his injures during treatment. Police registered the case on complaint of another brother Majid.</s>The Pentagon is investigating a US air strike that reportedly left dozens of civilians dead in or near a mosque, which is raising new questions about whether the US has lowered its commitment to avoiding civilian casualties.

WASHINGTON — The US military said it struck a meeting of al-Qaeda leaders in northern Syria Thursday night but residents say the strikes killed scores of civilians in prayer, renewing concerns that an aggressive airstrike campaign under the Trump administration is putting more civilian lives in danger.

It was the latest example of a large, unexplainable gap between what the US military and residents on the ground said was hit in a conflict where it is impossible for independent observers to be on the ground to assess what happened. The US war in Syria is largely being fought in the air and ground troops are there to train or protect local forces, not assess strikes.

If local estimates prove correct, the strike would be among the deadliest by the US in its nearly three-year long airstrike campaign in Syria, with rising concern the Trump administration may have lowered the commitment to avoiding civilian casualties in its strikes against ISIS, al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

According to the US military, it launched strikes on a large building just 50 feet from a small mosque in the village of al-Jinah. Al-Qaeda regularly used this building to hold high-level meetings, the Pentagon said. And after watching the site for some time, the US military bombed the building around 7 p.m. local time Thursday, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday. The strikes included a 500-pound bomb and at least six AGM-114 Hellfire missiles fired from drones, a US defense official told BuzzFeed News.

The US military said it purposely avoided the small mosque. But some on the ground suggested the building hit was a new, larger mosque, where as many as 300 worshippers had gathered for evening prayer. Local residents put the death toll as high as 62 and said others could be buried alive in the wreckage. Some videos that appeared online showed rescue workers pulling children out of the rubble.

“We are still assessing the results of the strike, but believe that dozens of core al Qaeda terrorists were killed,” Davis said in a statement afterwards.

Davis said the military was “not aware of any credible allegation” of civilian casualties despite the emerging accounts from Syrian watch groups. But US officials said they were still investigating the allegations. The US military also has yet to determine how many were killed and whether any were high-value al-Qaeda operatives.

There was evidence minutes after the attack that something could be awry. A Reaper military drone flew over the site for 30 minutes after the strikes and did not see anyone leaving the small mosque, even though many would be expected to be at prayer during that time, a defense official told BuzzFeed News, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Drones also showed local residents moving bodies out of the building that was hit and towards the still standing building next door. It is unclear whether that was the closest safe space to treat the wounded or an attempt by someone on the ground to make it appear the US hit another part of the building.

The US military released a photo of the strike site it says was taken five minutes after the strike occurred. The black-and-white photo showed half of a building destroyed, while the other half was seemingly not damaged. The small, nearby mosque appeared intact with only small damages on one side.

So far, the US military under both the current and former administration has struggled to quickly acknowledge possible civilian deaths, often doing so only after local residents on the ground produce photos and names. Shortly after a Jan. 29 raid on a compound in Yemen, the US military said it did not believe it had killed civilians; the Yemenis charged that as many as 30 had been killed, including 10 children. Last week, US Central Command said it had concluded between four and 12 civilians had been killed, including two children.

Al-Jinah and areas around it have been under militant control since at least 2015. In its initial statement, US Central Command acknowledged as much saying: “Idlib has been a significant safe haven for Al Qaeda in recent years.” But identifying al-Qaeda in a civil war riddled with factions is not so simple. Groups change names and affiliations and individuals switch sides as the groups gain or lose territory and their status rises and falls. The US military said its strike targeted “core al Qaeda.”

The Trump administration has not publicly declared a ramped up campaign against al-Qaeda in Syria or even who it considers al-Qaeda. After all, the US effort in Syria was billed as a war against ISIS, not al-Qaeda. And some of those the US now considers al-Qaeda were once backed by the US and “moderate” opposition forces to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In the past, US officials have said that top al-Qaeda operatives from places like Afghanistan have moved into Syria, where they can exploit the chaos there and now operate a base.

“There has been no clear articulation of American policy toward against al Qaeda” in Syria, Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, explained to BuzzFeed News. “Without a clear and identifiable goal, this level of cost in terms of human lives becomes difficult to accept.”
A suspected U.S. drone strike kills four alleged al-Qaeda militants in Ma'rib.