Drone strike kills 8 Qaeda suspects in Yemen

A drone strike killed eight suspected members of Al-Qaeda in south Yemen late today, security sources said.
The strike hit two vehicles carrying the suspected militants in Shabwa province, killing six instantly while two died later of their wounds, the sources said.
Six other alleged jihadists escaped a second air raid that missed two more vehicles in the same convoy, they added.
Washington is the only government to operate drones over Yemen, but the United States only sporadically releases statements on its long-running bombing campaign against the country's powerful Al-Qaeda branch.
The United States considers Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to be its most dangerous.

AQAP and the Islamic State group have exploited a power vacuum created by the conflict between the government and Shiite Huthi rebels to expand their presence in Yemen, especially in the south and southeast.