A US drone attack in Yemen killed two suspected al Qaeda members in their vehicle on Saturday in Marib province east of the capital Sanaa, a local official said. The official named the two dead men as Gazwan al-Waili and Zubeir al-Sanaani and said "they were known for their links to al Qaeda". After Yemeni government forces retook Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla in the southeast on April 24, after al Qaeda had held it for a year, the jihadist fighters headed north to Marib province.
Washington, which views al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch as its most dangerous, acknowledged on May 7 that a "very small number" of US military personnel has also been deployed in support of the operation to retake Mukalla. Al Qaeda exploited the civil war in Yemen between Shiite Huthi rebels and government forces to expand its presence in the south and southeast. The United States regularly conducts air strikes against al Qaeda. A March strike on a training camp west of Mukalla killed more than 70 fighters.
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