12-25-2009, 09:13 PM
UPDATED ON:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009
17:20 MECCA TIME, 14:20 GMT Deaths in Yemen raid on al-QaedaFootage of one al-Qaeda commander at a public rally in Yemen was obtained by Al Jazeera
At least 30 suspected al-Qaeda fighters have been killed in a dawn air raid by Yemeni forces in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa.
Among those thought to have been killed in the raid early on Thursday was Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim preacher, who according to a Yemeni security official was linked to a man who killed 13 people at a US army base in Texas.
"Anwar al-Awlaki is suspected to be dead [in the air raid]," the unnamed Yemeni official was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
According to US officials, al-Awlaki had contacts to Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US soldier, who shot dead 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in the US state of Texas.
<b>Casualties disputed</b>
Thursday's raid supposedly struck at a meeting of al-Qaeda operatives in Wadi Rafadh, a remote mountainous region lies about 650km east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Alongside al-Awlaki, several senior members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula - a group formed of al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen and Saudi Arabia - were also thought to have been killed in the raid.
But there was confusion over the number of casualties.
"Local sources have said that the casualties from this strike was seven people only," Mohammed al-Qadhi, a correspondent in Yemen for Abu Dhabi's The Nationalnewspaper, told Al Jazeera.
"All of those are from al-Qaeda, according to local sources, but the government reports say there are more than 30 [dead]."
<b>No confirmation</b>
Nasser al-Whaychi, the head of al-Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, was thought to have been present at the meeting at the time of the attack but it is not known if he was killed in the raid.
Initial reports also said that two other al-Qaeda commanders, identified by security sources as Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Oumir, were among those killed.
But there was no official confirmation that any of the men had been killed.
Al-Oumir is thought to have been the man who spoke at a rally in Abyane, a rare public appearance by an al-Qaeda leader, footage of which was obtained by Al Jazeera.
Thursday's attack comes a week after the raid on Abyane, which prompted the rally at which al-Oumir appeared and which allegedly killed dozens of civilians as well as al-Qaeda fighters.
Yemen's government has been battling al-Qaeda in the country at the same time as dealing with a Shia uprising in the north and rising secessionist sentiment in the south.
