ADEN: Weekend drone strikes in Yemen killed more than 40 suspected Al Qaeda militants, including 30 on Sunday.

The United States is the only country that operates drones in Yemen, and President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has defended their use despite criticism from rights groups who deplore civilian casualties.

On Sunday, US drones fired “several missiles” into a training camp run by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the rugged Wadi Ghadina region in the southern province of Abyan, a tribal chief said.

“More than 30 members of Al Qaeda were killed and many others wounded,” near Al-Mahfad town, he said.

Abyan lies next to Shabwa province, another region of Yemen where Al Qaeda is entrenched.

Witnesses also said a US drone carried out the attack and that most of the wounded were evacuated by members of the extremist network.

A statement on the defence ministry’s website said the attack on Al Qaeda ‘training camps’ killed ‘several’ militants of various nationalities.

On Saturday, a drone strike in the central province of Baida killed 10 Al Qaeda suspects and three civilians, according to the official Saba news agency.

After that strike, Al Qaeda militants cordoned off the area and evacuated dead comrades, tribal sources said. They said all those killed were low-ranking militants from the region.

An official statement on Saba said the dead were “dangerous elements” who had been plotting to carry out “attacks on vital installations and on politicians and military personnel” in Baida.

The statement said the suspects were also responsible for the murder of Baida’s deputy governor on April 15.

The weekend attacks came less than a week after AQAP chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi pledged in a rare video appearance to fight Western “crusaders” everywhere.

“We will continue to raise the banner of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and our war against the crusaders will continue everywhere in the world,” he said in the video posted online.

Al Qaeda usually uses the term ‘crusaders’ to refer to Western powers, especially the ones which have intervened militarily in Muslim countries, mainly the United States, Britain and France.