US Central Command: 2 Yemen strikes kill 4 al-Qaida members

SANAA, Yemen – The U.S. Central Command says the military has conducted two counterterrorism airstrikes targeting al-Qaida’s branch in southern Yemen this month, killing four al-Qaida operatives.

CENTCOM says in a statement that two al-Qaida operatives were killed in an airstrike on July 1. The other two were killed in a July 4 strike in the southern province of Shabwa.

Friday’s statement says the United States “will not relent in its mission to degrade, disrupt and destroy al-Qaida and its remnants.”

It added that the airstrikes “put consistent pressure on the terrorist network,” preventing it from “plotting and executing attacks against U.S. persons, our homeland and our allies.”

Al-Qaida remains a “significant threat to the region, the United States and beyond.”