Overnight air raids have killed around 15 people including a regional militant leader in southern Yemen

Overnight air raids have killed around 15 people including a regional militant leader in southern Yemen.

Tribal officials said the four raids struck an Al-Qaeda meeting and control post on Tuesday with an official saying they appeared to have been carried out by US planes.

The night-time air strikes were in the Loder and Al-Wadih areas of Abyan province, one official said. Three of the raids targeted a school in which Al-Qaeda fighters and chiefs of a local militant network were meeting around midnight, the sources said.
  
Around a dozen people were killed, among them regional Al-Qaeda leader Abdul Monem al-Fahtani, who has long been sought by the Yemeni authorities, and other local chiefs, they said. The fourth strike hit an Al-Qaeda control post, killing three more people, they said.

 The New York Times reported several months ago that the United States had stepped up its raids against suspected militants in Yemen with the aid of drones and other aircraft.