U.S. drone attack kills 6, wounds scores in Yemen, officials say

SANAA, Yemen — Six people were killed and about 40 wounded by a U.S. drone missile attack in Yemen’s restive southern province of Abyan, security officials and tribal leaders said Friday.

The victims of the Thursday airstrike were believed to be Islamist militants in al-Wadhi district suspected of having links with al-Qaeda, they said.

The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the fighters escaped from Mudiah district in Abyan after tribal forces pushed them away from that region. The involvement of tribal forces in the effort against the militants is a possibly significant development in southern Yemen, where there has been a growing separatist movement.

The fighters fled to al-Wadhi, which is the home area of Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is acting as head of state while President Ali Abdullah Saleh undergoes medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

The officials said the fighters were attacked while they were gathering in a police station that they controlled.

Militants took over parts of Abyan, including the provincial capital Zinjibar, in May. The anti-government opposition accused the government of facilitating the takeover to convince Western nations that al-Qaeda will take over Yemen if Saleh leaves power.

The airstrike comes as the U.S. grows increasingly concerned about the al-Qaeda threat in Yemen. U.S. officials have said the CIA would begin operating armed drone aircraft over Yemen along with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, which has been flying drones over the country for the past year.

John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, met this week with both Saleh and Hadi to urge Saleh to follow through with an agreement that would give him immunity from prosecution in exchange for stepping down from office.

Large anti-government protests took place Friday in about 17 provinces, calling for the establishment of a civil state, and transitional council to run the country and prosecution of those pro-Saleh forces involved in attacks on demonstrators as well as the shelling of regions including Arhab and Taiz. They dubbed the day “Civil State Friday.”

In the city of Taiz, a center of the uprising against the Saleh government, seven civilians were killed and 30 others wounded Friday in shell attacks on the al-Rawdha and al-Masbah neighborhoods, witnesses and residents said. The city has been shelled for about 10 successive days.

Also in Taiz province, a security official was killed along with two of his bodyguards in an ambush by armed men outside the city, a security official said. Three of his bodyguards and four attackers were also wounded.

The Saleh regime gave no sign that it would accede to the protesters’ demands. Tarik Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, Saleh’s nephew and commander of the Special Guards, said in an article published Thursday in the army newspaper, “As long as his excellency the president and the Yemeni people are with us, we will never accept the defeat.”

Saleh supporters gathered Friday near the presidential palace to express gratitude to Saudi Arabia for Saleh’s medical treatment.