Drone in Yemen Kills 9 al-Qaeda Suspects: Officials

A drone strike in southern Yemen killed at least nine suspected al-Qaeda militants and three civilians today, authorities said. A Yemeni military official said the strike hit a vehicle carrying the militants in the Sawmaa area in the al-Bayda province as another car carrying civilians passed by. A medical official said that the strike had killed three civilians and wounded three. One civilian survivor cited two strikes, according to a security official.

While some Yemen officials tell the AP the drone was American, Yemen's Supreme Security Council described the attack as an airstrike carried out by Yemeni authorities. It said the attack killed 10 members of al-Qaeda who planned to attack "vital civilian and military institutions" in the area. It said the strike wounded one other person in the car. The committee also said three civilians died in the attack while five were wounded in the other car. The conflicting casualty figures and details of the attack could not be immediately reconciled, the AP notes. (More Yemen stories.)