Aden (South24 Center)

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A drone fired four missiles at a vehicle carrying a suspected Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operative east of Mukalla on Thursday (October 8), a security source told South24 Center. The target’s fate and the identity of those responsible for the strike remained unclear.

The source said the strike took place in the Al-Ma’aws area, east of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout governorate in eastern South Yemen.

A second security source told South24 Center that the suspected operative belonged to the Al-Muhammedi tribe and was related to a person killed in a similar drone strike in Burum, west of Mukalla, last month.

Local media also reported that four missiles struck the vehicle on Thursday afternoon. Citing witnesses, they said the vehicle was destroyed and the explosions caused panic among residents near the site.

Some reports described the strike as suspected U.S. action, but no official confirmation identifying the force responsible was found. No official statement clarifying the target’s identity or the casualty toll was immediately available.

The strike follows a September 22 drone attack in Burum that killed one person, according to Hadramout Coast police.

A security source told South24 Center that another person was wounded. Police said investigators and forensic teams were gathering evidence, but did not identify the person killed or those responsible for the attack.

Yemeni journalist Mohammed bin Faisal, who specializes in extremist groups, identified the possible target of that earlier strike as Suleiman Saeed Al-Muhammedi.

South24 Center could not independently establish whether Al-Muhammedi was the person killed or whether anyone at the site was affiliated with AQAP.

In a separate incident on February 12, a Somali national identified in South24 Center’s reporting as Abdushakur Ali was killed in a drone strike targeting a vehicle on the corniche of Al-Ghaydah, the capital of neighboring Al-Mahra governorate.

Security sources described him as an Al-Shabaab member, while specialists monitoring militant groups said he was involved in foreign liaison and weapons procurement. Responsibility for that strike was not officially confirmed.

Hadramout also witnessed a ground operation on September 1 that killed a man identified by Yemen’s Central State Security Agency as ISIS spokesman Abu Hudhayfah Al-Ansari. The agency said special forces from the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s Counterterrorism Force 22 carried out the operation at a house in Seiyun.

Sources had earlier told South24 Center that U.S. forces conducted the Seiyun raid. The subsequent official statement did not identify the nationalities of the coalition personnel involved or confirm U.S. participation.