Air raids in southern Yemen overnight blasted al Qaeda targets killing 15 people, including a long-hunted militant leader, tribal and military sources said on Tuesday, claiming the United States was behind the raids. Four Monday night raids on an al Qaeda meeting and control post, which a local military official said on condition of anonymity were "carried out by US planes," hit targets in the Loder and Al-Wadih areas of Abyan province, according to a tribal chief.
"We think they were carried out by American planes," the tribal chief said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. In the capital, meanwhile, Yemen's newly-appointed Information Minister Ali Ahmed al-Amrani escaped an assassination attempt on Tuesday as he was leaving government headquarters, a government official told AFP.