Drone Raid Kills Six Qaeda Suspects in Yemen

A drone strike in eastern Yemen killed six Al-Qaeda suspectstoday, tribal sources said, in the first such raid since the army launched anoffensive against jihadists last month.

The pilot-less aircraft targeted a vehicle carrying "Al-Qaedamembers" near Al-Husun, a village in Marib province, one source told AFP.

The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but USofficials rarely acknowledge the covert drone programme.

Yemen's army launched a major offensive on April 29 against strongholds ofAl-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, in three provinces in the south andeast.

It says it has inflicted heavy losses on the jihadists. The offensive waspreceded by a wave of US drone strikes that killed scores of suspected Al-Qaedasuspects last month in southern and central regions.

AQAP has been linked to a number of failed terror plots against the UnitedStates, and its leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi recently appeared in a rare video inwhich he vowed to attack Western "crusaders" wherever they are.

Al-Qaeda uses the term crusaders to refer to Western powers, especially thosecountries which have intervened militarily in Muslim countries, such asBritain, France and the United States.

The jihadists took advantage of a 2011 uprising that forced veteran strongmanAli Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of southern and easternYemen. The army recaptured several major towns in 2012 but has struggled toreassert control in rural areas, despite the backing of militiamen recruitedamong local tribes.