A suspected American missile strike has killed two brothers believed to be al-Qaida militants in a remote region of Yemen.
Yemeni officials said the brothers, Abdullah and Mosaad Mubarak, died Thursday in Shabwa province, but they did not elaborate on how they were killed. Media reports quote tribal officials and witnesses as saying they suspected it was a U.S. missile strike.
One witness told Reuters that people in the area saw what was believed to be a missile hit the brothers' car, causing it to explode and burn completely.
Nearby residents also told the news agency that they saw what they thought was an unmanned aircraft in the air at the time of the killing. They said they had seen so-called drones repeatedly in the area in recent days.
U.S. officials have not commented on the incident, but the use of unmanned aircraft has been part of the U.S. counterterrorism strategy in militant hotbeds, such as Yemen and Pakistan's northwest tribal areas.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
