Geolocation
Airwars assessment
An alleged US drone strike hit a car in the Al-Jaboul area, east of the city of Ma’rib, Yemen on July 10, 2016 and reportedly injured up to five people, whose status as civilians/militants is contested among the sources, and killed four civilians, including children.
Saba News reported that the victims were citizens, alleging that “U.S. raid targeted the farm of the citizen Saeed al-Hajrah [in the] al-Khasha’a area [south of the] city of Mareb, which resulted in injuring four citizens and burning a patrol car.” Reuters however reported that they were al Qaeda militants, according to an anonymous tribesman.
Yemen Monitor posted on Facebook that “The airstrike burned the vehicle in a limited way, while the wounded were taken to a hospital in the governorate,” adding that the identities of the wounded were unknown. Aden Lang News stated that the “four suspected al-Qaeda militants” had left the car moments before the strike. The highest injury toll was provided by @Ben_ataf who stated that the bombing of a home in “the village of Al-Ma’am” wounded five people during the afternoon while the lower injury toll of two war reported by @BelqeesTV and @AhmadALzurqa.
Two sources reported that civilians had been killed in the strike – @msaleh221122 reported that “a number of civilians, including children” were killed by a drone strike on their car in the Kara al-Ma`im area while @Hazem_Awd_pal put the death toll at four people, including two children, and referred to the location as “in Marib”.
Tribal officials and local media reported the strike, which hit on the same day the exiled president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi visited the province.
Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the US military, with multiple referring to the strike as a “pilotless raid” or a drone.
The incident occured in the afternoon.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the village of Al-Jaboul, for which the generic coordinates are: 15.429444, 45.360833. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.