US drone strike kills 3 Al Qaeda militants in Yemen

Sanaa - The drone targeted the militants' vehicle while they were travelling in Shabwa province.

A US drone strike killed three suspected Al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen on Saturday, according to local tribesmen.
Believed to be the first drone strike this year in Yemen, it targeted the militants' vehicle while they were travelling in Shabwa province, the tribesmen said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. It was not immediately possible to verify their account. US officials rarely comment on the covert drone programme.
The latest strike comes amid reports of divisions and defections among Al Qaeda's rival group, the Daesh affiliate in Yemen, as a defected group leader gave an online testimony, claiming that Daesh fabricated videos to exaggerate their strength and presence.
In testimony posted online by Al Qaeda supporters, a man calling himself Antar Al Kanadi said he defected from Daesh because its leadership had become too extreme. Al Kanadi's allegations seem to match reports elsewhere of dissension within the Yemeni Daesh ranks. According to The Long War Journal, which monitors militant group activity, more than a dozen Daesh leaders and scores of their fighters have rebelled against the top leader, Abu Bilal Al Harbi, for alleged violations of Shariah law.
"Seventy members of the Daesh's Yemeni branch announced their 'defection' from the Daesh's wali in a letter published online on December 15," it said.
Al Kanadi also alleged that Daesh in Yemen released two videos of training camps in Hadramawt province and fraudulently claimed they were elsewhere in the country.
Yemen has been mired in conflict between Houthi rebels and an internationally recognised government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. Both Daesh and Al Qaeda in Yemen have exploited Yemen's chaos and expanded their reach over the past year.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has long been described by Washington as the global network's most active and dangerous branch. The Daesh affiliate in Yemen has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks including four suicide bomb attacks on mosques in Sanaa in March and the assassination of the governor of Aden province.

• MENA