Drone strikes have killed at least three alleged al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen’s southwestern region, security officials said, the first of such killings under the new Trump administration.
The strikes were carried out Saturday in Bayda province, killing Abu Anis al-Abi, an area field commander, and two others, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information to journalists, AP reported.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead, drone strikes have become commonplace against al-Qaeda. But drone strikes rose dramatically under President Barack Obama, with spikes in drone attacks in 2012 and 2016, the Britain-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism said.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism says Obama’s “covert drone war” carried out ten times more strikes than President George W. Bush’s two terms in office.
“A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush,” the Bureau says in a report.
