US drone strike kills 2 Al Qaeda suspects in Yemen

An American drone strike in southern Yemen killed at least two people suspected of being Al Qaeda militants on Saturday.

The targeted killing was the ninth such drone strike in two weeks, Yemeni officials told the Associated Press. Some 38 suspected militants have been killed in those strikes.

The men were traveling in a car in Askariya, in Lahj Province, with two companions. Those men were wounded in the strike, one critically. The drone also fired at a second car, but missed its mark, and the suspected militants escaped in their vehicle.

"The militants were taking a weapons shipment by vehicle to a different location when that strike took place," a local security official told CNN.

Residents told CNN that the drone had been clearly visible on Saturday afternoon, flying in low altitude between Yafe'e and Radman.

“We strongly condemn the drones,” Fadl Abdullah, head of the Yemeni Organization for Human Rights, told the AP on Friday, before the latest strike. “There are strong chances that civilians get killed in the middle of the strike, either because they are present at the site of the attack or simply because of wrong information provided by the informants.”

The US recently evacuated diplomatic staff members from Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, due to concerns that a terrorist attack on Americans there was imminent. The US embassy in Yemen remains closed.

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