SANAA (Dispatches) – At least five people have been killed in a U.S. drone raid in Yemen's central Marib province, east of the capital, Sana'a.
Local sources said on Sunday that the early morning strike targeted a car in the area.
The vehicle belonged to a known local leader of Yemen's al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Some media reports said al-Qaeda militants had been transporting arms from Yakla in Baida province.
The latest strike comes 24 hours after a similar raid killed three suspected AQAP operatives in the southern province of Shabwa.
On March 2, Washington launched a series of strikes against alleged al-Qaeda targets in Yemen. The attacks focused on the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwah as well as Bayda, farther to the north.
The strikes were the first since a botched ground raid in January that killed women and children as well as an American commando. Yakla was the target of the controversial January 29 air raid ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon has confirmed more than 70 strikes against alleged militant targets in Yemen since February 28.
The aerial attacks, initiated by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2004, were escalated under former President Barack Obama. The drone strikes were mainly carried out in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.

Nine Saudi Mercenaries Killed

Yemeni forces have killed as many as nine Saudi-backed militants, hitting them in two separate counterstrikes throughout the impoverished nation.
Yemen’s Army and its allies have been hitting back against Saudi Arabia which has been pounding its impoverished neighbor for more than two years now.
On Saturday, the Yemeni army and their allies killed five Saudi mercenaries in Midi District of the northwestern Hajjah Province, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network said.
A day earlier, the army and Houthi fighters downed a spy drone belonging to the mercenaries in the same region.
Also on Saturday, Yemeni snipers took out four Saudi-backed militants in Sirwah District of the west-central Ma’rib Province.
Al-Masirah further reported heavy confrontation between the Army and militants in Jawf Province, which is similarly located in the northwest.
The soldiers and Houthi fighters fired rockets at the al-Salatah military base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Najran region while Saudi warplanes staged three airstrikes against the strategic al-Dailami airbase, north of the capital Sana’a.
Various reports said a U.S. drone had hit al-Jubah District in Ma’rib, allegedly killing four al-Qaeda elements on Friday.
The militants were purportedly targeted while leaving the Ma’rib for the nearby province of Bayda.
Successive U.S. administrations have been ordering unauthorized drone attacks against Yemen and other Muslim countries.
Soon after incumbent President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, the Pentagon ordered an air raid against Bayda. The strike came to be known as "the botched raid” after it killed as many as 25 civilians and a U.S. commando.
The Pentagon, however, continued to order 20 more attacks using manned and unmanned aircraft against purported al-Qaeda targets in Bayda and two more south-central provinces of Abyan and Shabwah in March.