SANAA, Yemen — A US drone strike targeting al Qaeda militants in Yemen took out an unlikely target on Thursday — a wedding party headed to the festivities. The convoy of cars was carrying at least some terror suspects, local officials told The Associated Press. The blast killed at least 13 people. It was unknown if the bride and groom were among the casualties.
Five others were injured in the attack that left charred bodies and burned-out cars along the roadway in Radda, the capital of Bayda province.
The dead were not immediately identified.
Some local officials claimed the drone mistook wedding guests in cars for militants.
Others said the drone targeted cars with terrorists but missed them and struck cars in the convoy.
Radda is a stronghold of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which the United States regards as the most active site of the terror network.
The CIA, which runs the drone campaign, declined to comment.
The United States has acknowledged its drone program in Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, but does not talk about individual strikes.
Radda witnessed deadly clashes early last year between armed tribesmen backed by the military and al Qaeda gunmen in a battle for control of the city.
The drone strike is the second since a massive, brazen car bombing and coordinated assault on Yemen’s military headquarters in Sanaa, the capital, on Dec. 5 killed 56 people, including foreigners.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it was in retaliation for US drone strikes that have killed dozens of the group’s leaders.
On Wednesday, Yemeni state television aired horrific surveillance-camera video of an attack on a military base that showed terrorists, civilians and medics being killed in cold blood.
Investigators said the assailants wore military fatigues and penetrated the sprawling complex after a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the gate.
They said the bodies of 12 attackers were recovered after security forces retook the area.
The violence in Yemen has become so vicious that the United Nations on Thursday closed its offices in Sanaa over fears of new car-bomb attacks.
The American and Turkish schools there were also closed.
Security forces set up checkpoints across the city and sealed off the road to the president’s residence, in response to what the Interior Ministry called threats of “terrorist plots” targeting vital institutions and government buildings
Most shops in Sanaa were shuttered and few people ventured out into the streets as rumors of an imminent revenge attack swirled.
Elsewhere in Yemen, ultraconservative Sunni Muslim militants and rebels belonging to a branch of Shiite Islam battled each other with artillery and machine guns in clashes that killed more than 40 people, security officials said Thursday.