Amid reports that Reprieve, a London-based human rights organization, has launched a global anti-drone campaign, looking to outlaw and banned all drone strikes, on the basis that too many innocent civilian lives have been lost over the past decade on account of America's war on terror, officials in Yemen have confirmed on Sunday that several rockets fired from an unmanned plane killed at least four alleged terror militants.
Residents in the restive southern Yemeni province of Abyan told reporters that the drone appeared late on Saturday evening. Witnesses confirmed that plane hovered briefly over its assigned target, a vehicle traveling through the province before firing two rockets.
"Huge blasts were heard late on Saturday from the area," a resident told Reuters on Sunday.
According to local officials who at this point said they were not allowed to make any formal statement noted however that the targets had been identified as militants of Ansar al-Sharia, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the region.
Despite a heavy military presence in Abyan and the enrollment of pro-tribal militia into Yemen counter-terror forces, al-Qaeda militants have nevertheless managed to survive the state heavy crackdown, by operating smaller cells scattered across the area.
And while Yemen and its allies scored major victories against the terror group by killing off its leaders, Washington still considers AQAP the movement's most dangerous wing.
If so far no civilian casualties were reported on this specific strike, yet another report of a drone attack is bound to generate some level of controversy, especially since activists both in Yemen and abroad have grown disillusioned toward America's elusive war on terror and it use of drones.