United States Central Command (Centcom) revealed on Wednesday that the air strikes it launched in Yemen recently resulted in the death of key leaders of the Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) group.
American forces continue to engage in sustained counter-terrorism operations in Yemen against AQAP and ISIS, in coordination with the government of Yemen, with the aim of degrading these groups’ ability to hold territory and coordinate external attacks.
Centcom said that external operations facilitator Miqdad Al Sana'ani was killed in an air strike on December 15 in Al Bayda governorate.
Another senior Al Qaeda figure, Habib Al Sana'ani, a deputy arms facilitator who was an intermediary with ties to senior figures in the group's leadership and was responsible for facilitating the movement of weapons, explosives and finances into northern Marib and Al Bayda governorates, was killed by another air strike on December 19 in Marib governorate.
Abu Umar Al Sana’ani, an AQAP Dawah committee member, was killed in an air strike the previous month also in Al Bayda governorate.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said that it had thwarted an attack on a Saudi oil tanker over the weekend by Houthi fighters near the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
A boat carrying explosives was destroyed as it headed towards the tanker on Saturday, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al Maliki said.
Yemen lies on the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the world's most important trade routes for oil tankers, which pass Yemen’s shores while heading from the Middle East through the Suez Canal to Europe.
