US drone strike kills 3 Qaeda suspects in Yemen: official

SANAA: A US drone strike has killed three suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the central Yemen province of Al-Bayda, in the fourth such attack in a week, a local official said on Sunday.

The unmanned plane fired missiles at a vehicle near the village of al-Manaseh, in the area of Rada, late on Saturday, the official said. Among those who died was prominent local militant Saleh Mohammed al-Ameri, the official said, adding that two other militants were killed and two were wounded.

On Friday, a US drone strike killed two suspected members of Al-Qaeda in the town of Shehr in the eastern province of Hadramawt. This followed a similar operation last Monday when six other suspected members of Al-Qaeda, including a Jordanian, were killed in separate strikes in Rada and Shehr.

US drones have backed Yemeni forces combating militants of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group's Yemen branch, considered by Washington to be the most active and deadliest franchise of the global jihadist network.