Suspected US airstrike kills 2 Yemen children

A US Navy handout photo released on April 21, 2015 shows an F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the Thunderbolts of Marine Strike Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 251 launching from the flight deck of the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Arabian Sea. (AFP)

ADEN/WASHINGTON: Two children, aged 10 and 12, were killed in a suspected US airstrike targeting Al-Qaeda in central Yemen, a provincial official said on Tuesday.
The children had been tending a herd of goats on a mountain outside the village of Yakla, in Baida province, when the strike hit on Sunday, the official said.
There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, US airstrikes against an Al-Qaeda-linked militant group in Yemen killed a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was released in 2009 despite earlier recommendations that he remain in custody because he was considered a high threat to America and its allies.
The Pentagon said Mohammed Tahar, a Yemeni, was killed. Tahar was held in Guantanamo for seven years.
A March 2008 memo from the detention center commander warned that Tahar would engage in extremist activities if he was released.
Also killed was Usayd Al-Adani, an explosives expert and district leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the latest strikes in Yemen’s Abyan region bring the total number of attacks to more than 40 over the past five days.