A suspected U.S. drone strike killed two men believed to be al Qaeda militants in central Yemen, local officials said early on Monday, hours after American commandos carried out the first military operation authorized by President Donald Trump.The officials said the pilot-less plane targeted a vehicle traveling in Baihan in the province of Shabwa, in which two suspected al Qaeda members were traveling. Yemeni security and tribal officials said the surprise dawn assault in Yemen's central Bayda province killed three senior al-Qaida leaders: Abdul-Raouf al-Dhahab, Sultan al-Dhahab, and Seif al-Nims. An online news serviced linked to al-Qaida in Yemen likened the raid to a "massacre against Muslims" and said U.S. warplanes were first seen in the sky above the area at 9 p.m. Saturday and that the raid began at 2 a.m. on Sunday, with 16 missiles hitting three houses near Yakla village in Radaa district. Eight women and eight children were among those killed in the dawn raid in Yakla district, in the central province of Baida, said the provincial official, who did not want to be named, and tribal sources. The killed and wounded included some Saudis present at the site, according to the Yemeni officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists. Just over a week ago, suspected U.S. drone strikes killed three other alleged al-Qaida operatives in Bayda in what was the first-such killings reported in the country since Trump assumed the U.S. presidency.
A U.S. military raid takes place in Yemen's southern Al Bayda Governorate. According to medics on the scene as reported by Reuters, "around 30" were killed, among which were at least three senior Al-Qaeda members, at least one U.S. service member, and 10 women and children.