(Reuters) - U.S.-operated drones carried out deadly missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda targets in Pakistan and Yemen on Friday, U.S. government sources said.There was no connection between the targets in the two locations, other than the fact that both sets of militants who were attacked were believed to have had some connection with al Qaeda affiliates, according to the sources.
Reports from Aden said that at least five suspected al Qaeda militants traveling in a car in southern Yemen's Shabwa province were killed when a drone strike set their vehicle on fire. Witnesses said a second drone hit an empty building.
In Miranshah, the main town in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, a drone strike killed four suspected militants and wounded three others, local intelligence officials and militants said. An intelligence official claimed the dead men were local Taliban militants.
Both drone strikes are understood to have been conducted as part of a long-running campaign intended to kill and disrupt al-Qaeda using missile-firing drones operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, which declines comment on such operations. Read More
