20 soldiers killed in Yemen after al-Qaeda top militant dies in air raid

The Yemeni government called the attack an air strike. Washington and Yemen do not acknowledge U.S. drone attacks on militants in the country, which have taken place regularly for years.    

Yemen's branch of al Qaeda has plotted abortive overseas attacks and is a major concern for Washington, which is waging an assassination campaign against suspected members using drone and missile strikes.    

The car was struck in the Wadi Rafad valley in Shabwa province in east Yemen, residents there said.    

Yemen's government and the al Qaeda-linked group both identified one of the men as Fahd al-Qasaa, who escaped from prison in 2005 after being convicted of a role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship in Yemen's port of Aden. That attack killed 17 U.S. sailors.    

Residents gave the name of the other man as Fahed Salem al-Akdam.    

Residents said the aircraft that fired the missile had been sighted in the sky. No one else was travelling in the vehicle or killed in the incident, they said.    

The Yemeni government said Qasaa had been on its most-wanted list of militants.

Reuters/LBCI