US drone strikes in Yemen kill 8 militants

ADEN : Drone attacks killed eight men suspected of belonging to al Qaeda in southern Yemen on Saturday night, local residents said, as a US campaign against the militant group goes on amid a wider civil war in the country.

Two missiles hit the fighters who had gathered in courtyards in the villages of al-Hudhn and Naqeel al-Hayala, residents from the southern coastal province of Abyan told Reuters by phone.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has taken advantage of a war pitting the Iran-allied Houthis against forces loyal to exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to grab territory and operate more openly.

The group has carried out attacks against the Yemeni state for years, plotted to blow up US -bound airliners and claimed responsibility for the January 2015 attack in Paris on a French magazine that killed 12 people.

The United States has kept up a drone campaign against the militants, although it evacuated the last of its military and intelligence personnel from Yemen in March last year.

Its attacks have killed some of AQAP´s top leaders, including its chief, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, who was struck by a drone in June.

The United States has acknowledged using drones but declines to comment on specific attacks. At least 50 al Qaeda militants were killed in a US airstrike on an al Qaeda training camp in the mountains of southern Yemen, medics and a local official said on March 22.