The areas of Wadi Hadhramaut on Monday have witnessed an unprecedented deployment of pro-Saudi military factions, hours after unidentified gunmen assassinated the most prominent al-Qaeda leaders in the region, Yemen News Portal reported, citing local sources.
According to the local sources, Saudi military pickups and armored vehicles arrived in the city of Al Hawta and clashed with “unknown gunmen” in the city.
The deployment came just hours after Qaboos bin Talib, a leader of an al-Qaeda network in the Hadhramaut Valley, was killed by unknown gunmen.
The motivations for the killing of Bin Talib, who was kept under Saudi protection, is not yet clear, but indicate that the incident is part of a conflict between coalition-backed extremist groups.
