The journalist, who preferred anonymity, said a drone was following Al-Qaeda leader Saud Al-Harad but couldn’t hit him in the first strike that occurred at 3:30 a.m. in Al-Awash, Nisab district.
“When Saud realized that he was being followed, he changed his car with his nephews, Mohsa’ed Mubarak Al-Harad and Abdullah Mubarak Al-Harad, who were killed within 30 minutes in a second strike in Al-Lejaj area."The journalist said locals are used to seeing and hearing the sound of drones hovering over the cities of Shabwa. “They have recently increased in number," said the journalist.
However, the official version of the story claims two leading Al-Qaeda figures were killed in Shabwa by state forces. The Ministry of Defense identified the dead as Mohsa’ed and Abdullah, calling them dangerous links to a number of terrorist attacks.
Shabwa is thought to be the hiding place of Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American cleric who is accused locally of inciting people to kill foreigners in Yemen.
Regarding the ratification of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) deal calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in return for immunity, the 26 September weekly — the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Defense — quoted a source close to the negotiations as saying GCC mediators are working hard to draft an agreement that could end the turmoil. The source said that Abdukarim Al-Aryani would sign the deal in Sanaa on behalf of the ruling party and his coalition, and the Joint Meetings Parties would also sign it.
The source added that Saleh and Shiekh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the rotating president of the GCC, would ratify the deal after the signing.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense flatly denied on Thursday reports that the security forces had abducted pro-democracy woman activist Badreh Ghailan in the capital four days ago.
The state TV showed a man — said to be a pro-government poet — claiming that “opposition militias” snatched the man, cut his tongue out and threw him in the street in Taiz. It also showed a doctor carrying a bag that allegedly contained the man's tongue.
