Sanaa (Reuters) Jan 26, 2015 – A suspected U.S. drone strike on a car in eastern Yemen killed three men believed to be al Qaeda militants on Monday, officials said, suggesting Washington’s remotely-piloted air war has survived the overthrow of the country’s U.S.-backed leader.
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government quit on Thursday after he was besieged inside his palace by an Iranian-backed armed group.
The attack in Marib province was the first apparent drone strike since the departure of Hadi, and signals Washington’s campaign against AQAP is continuing, at least in its use of drones, despite his absence.
Two U.S. security officials had said on Friday the collapse of Hadi’s U.S.-backed government left America’s counter-terrorism campaign “paralyzed”, but Monday’s strike suggests the CIA-run drone campaign has not been dismantled.
The U.S. embassy said on Monday that it was closing to the public until further notice due to security concerns. Officials in Washington had said last week that staff levels at the mission were being reduced.
Iran backed Shi’ite Muslim Houthi militiamen seized the capital Sanaa in September, becoming Yemen’s dominant political faction, and now run the capital and several other parts of the country. Last week they seized the presidential palace and besieged Hadi in his residence in a dispute about the constitution that ended with Hadi’s resignation.
On Monday, Houthi gunmen and supporters stormed the capital’s main university to detain several people from among 200 or so protesters who had demonstrated against their rule.