Drone strike kills 6 Qaeda suspects in Yemen

ADEN: A drone strike killed six suspected Al-Qaeda militants on Sunday in central Yemen, a security official said.

The US military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

The official said the strike happened after sundown and targeted a vehicle in Bayda province.

"An unmanned drone -- likely American -- bombed the group's vehicle in the area of Qayfa, where Al-Qaeda is active," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Al-Qaeda's global network remains "remarkably resilient," posing more of a threat in some regions than the Islamic State group, UN sanctions monitors said in a report seen by AFP on Wednesday.

The report sent to the Security Council said that the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) served as a communications hub for the UN-designated terror group as a whole.

A long-running American drone war against AQAP has intensified since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.

The extremist group has flourished in the chaos of Yemen's civil war, which the UN has called the world's biggest humanitarian disaster.