A U.S.-backed offensive with Yemeni forces killed up to 65 al Qaeda militants during a three-day airstrike that targeted an al Qaeda training camp and senior operatives, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Yemeni security officials said U.S. drone strikes supported their operations against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which the U.S. considers the terror group's most lethal offshoot with the ability to launch global attacks.
The Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military both operate drone programs in Yemen, which work in conjunction with each other. The operations over the weekend appeared to be CIA strikes, officials said.
U.S. officials have been pressing the Yemeni government to step up its ground operations against AQAP without success, a former U.S. official said.
Despite persistent American and Yemeni efforts to wipe out the group, it continues to chip away at Yemen's deteriorating security to carve out its own centers of operation.
U.S. officials have said that Yemen would be overrun by al Qaeda without the U.S. drone program.