Drone strike 鈥榢ills four Qaeda suspects鈥� in Yemen

Newly recruited Houthi fighters ride a car before heading to the frontline to fight against government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, in this November 16, 2017 photo. (REUTERS)

ADEN: A drone strike killed four suspected Al-Qaeda fighters in central Yemen on Monday, a local official said.
The United States is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.
鈥淎 car carrying four fighters was hit as it drove on a mountain road鈥� in Bayda province, the official said. 鈥淎ll of them were killed.鈥�
鈥淭he fighters were from Al-Qaeda,鈥� he said.
Washington considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group鈥檚 most dangerous branch.
AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the country鈥檚 civil war, which pits the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against the Houthi Shiite rebels.
A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
An air raid he ordered that month killed a US Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians in Bayda.
US strikes in Yemen have typically targeted suspected Al-Qaeda fighters, but last month the United States said it had killed dozens of fighters from its jihadist rival, the Daesh group, at training camps in Bayda.