US drone strike kills 13 'IS fighters' in Yemen

A US drone strike has killed 13 suspected Islamic State group militants in central Yemen, security sources said Wednesday.

The strike in Bayda province would be the second known US strike against IS in Yemen.

The first came just over a week ago, when the US military said it had killed dozens of jihadists at IS training camps in the same province.

The United States is the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen, but its previous known strikes have targeted Al-Qaeda.

IS has however risen to prominence in the country's civil war, targeting both government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels, which it considers heretics.

Washington has intensified its drone war against Yemen-based jihadists since US President Donald Trump took power in January.

A Saudi-led coalition, which entered Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to prop up the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against the Iran-backed Huthis, has also turned its firepower on Sunni jihadists.

The Yemen war has killed 8,673 people and wounded 58,636 since 2015, including many civilians, according to the United Nations.

Another 2,100 have died of cholera this year.

The top UN aid official arrived in Yemen Tuesday on a five-day trip aimed at drawing attention to what his organisation has called the world's top humanitarian crisis.

Source: AFP