SANAA, Yemen -- Al-Qaida militants in Yemen killed two men accused of spying for the U.S. and hung their bodies off a bridge Wednesday, a day after the jihadist group announced the death of its leader in an American drone strike.
Witnesses said al-Qaida gunmen in the southern city of Mukalla read out charges before shooting the two men, one of whom was accused of guiding the drone that killed commander Nasr al-Ansi and a media liaison known as Muhannad Ghalab in April.
Al-Qaida supporters posted pictures online that showed the two men blindfolded on a sandy beach that was said to be the site of a previous drone strike. Another picture showed a body dangling off a bridge.
The killings came a day after al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, said its leader, Nasir al-Wahishi, was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week.
Al-Qaida captured Mukalla in April after Yemen's army splintered between allies and opponents of Shiite rebels known as Houthis.
In a series of online postings, al-Qaida members said one of the two men shot dead Wednesday was a Saudi national loyal to the Islamic State group, which controls regions of Iraq and Syria. They identified him as Musaed al-Khaweitar and said he ran an al-Qaida-linked media outlet and was close to top leaders.
The second man, identified as Abu Ayman al-Mutairi, is also believed to be Saudi.
Al-Qaida's Yemen branch is widely seen as the terrorism network's most dangerous offshoot. It claimed the attack on the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January and has been linked to a number of attempts to attack the U.S.
Elsewhere in Yemen, a series of Islamic State-claimed bombings in the rebel-controlled capital, Sanaa, killed at least four people and wounded 60 Wednesday night.
The Islamic State's claim, if true, would further complicate the ongoing conflict in Yemen that pits the Houthis and breakaway army units against local tribesmen, loyalists to exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and al-Qaida militants.
Ambulances in Sanaa rushed through the streets in northern and central parts of the capital where the offices of the Houthis are located. Pictures posted online from the area show huge orange flames rising from the areas, which also are home to Shiite mosques.
Security officials earlier said two suicide attackers drove cars into the gates of two buildings before detonating bombs. They said a third attack targeted a gathering of Houthis in Sanaa's Green- Dome district.
The Health Ministry said "preliminary" reports indicate the blasts killed four people and wounded 60.
The online statement claiming that Yemen's Islamic State affiliate carried out the attack said its militants set off four car bombs outside two Shiite mosques, including in the Green Dome district, which is close to a security office used by the Houthis. The third car bomb hit the Houthi's main political office and a fourth targeted the home of a Houthi politician on the same street, it said.
In the southern city of Aden, airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi struck a convoy of civilian vehicles, killing at least 31 people, authorities said.
Despite nearly three months of airstrikes, anti-Houthi forces have made little progress. The Saudi-led campaign and ground fighting also have a high humanitarian toll. The violence has killed at least 1,412 civilians, including more than 200 children, and wounded 3,423, according to the United Nations. Aid groups say 80 percent of the population is in need of assistance.
Also Wednesday, heavy fighting was underway in the oil- and gas-rich Marib province east of Sanaa, where Sunni tribes have fended off a number of Houthi advances on the city of al-Saheel, security officials said.
In Taiz, Houthi shelling has killed more than 30 civilians in the past 48 hours, medical officials and witnesses said. The rebels control a third of the city.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
U.N.-brokered negotiations between the rival factions are underway in Geneva, aimed at ending the violence and addressing the humanitarian crisis in the Arab world's poorest country. Mediators hope for a humanitarian truce during the holy month of Ramadan, but neither side has shown any desire to compromise.
A Section on 06/18/2015