Araweelo News Network

Marib- Yemen(ANN)-At least five people have been killed in a US drone raid in Yemen’s central Marib province, east of the capital, Sana’a.

Local sources said on Sunday that the early morning strike targeted a car in the area.

The vehicle belonged to a known local leader of Yemen’s al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Some media reports said al-Qaeda militants had been transporting arms from Yakla in Baida province.

The latest strike comes 24 hours after a similar raid killed three suspected AQAP operatives in the southern province of Shabwa.

On March 2, Washington launched a series of strikes against alleged al-Qaeda targets in Yemen. The attacks focused on the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwah as well as Bayda, farther to the north.

The strikes were the first since a botched ground raid in January that killed women and children as well as an American commando. Yakla was the target of the controversial January 29 air raid ordered by US President Donald Trump.

The Pentagon has confirmed more than 70 strikes against alleged militant targets in Yemen since February 28.

The aerial attacks, initiated by former US President George W. Bush in 2004, were escalated under former President Barack Obama. The drone strikes were mainly carried out in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.

Trump recently given the CIA spy agency a new authority to launch drone strikes across various parts of the world in Washington’s so-called war on terror.

The United States claims the airstrikes target members of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have also been the victims of the attacks in many cases.

The drone strikes in Yemen continue amid Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign against the impoverished conflict-ridden country. The regime in Riyadh has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate a former government and undermine the Houthi Anasarullah movement.