A total of nine insurgents with suspected ties to al-Qaeda were killed in US drone strikes in eastern Yemen, local media reported Sunday.
Five of the militants were killed in a strike carried out late Saturday in the area of Wadi Ebeida, in the eastern province of Mareb, reported the independent Yemeni website Mareb Press.
The other four, two of them believed to be Saudis, were killed in two subsequent strikes in the same area, according to the report.
Yemeni troops, backed by US drones, have since April been pursuing a high-profile campaign against al-Qaeda-linked radicals in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country, DPA reported.