Al-Qaeda suicide attack killed 45 people in Yemen’s Abyan province, as a suspected US drone strike killed five militants in the east of the country.

Al-Qaeda suicide attack killed 45 people in Yemen’s Abyan province, as a suspected US drone strike killed five militants in the east of the country.

Local officials said on Sunday that the bomber struck on Saturday in Jaar, one of a string of towns in Abyan province that were retaken by government troops in June after being held by Al-Qaeda loyalists for more than a year.

"An Al-Qaeda suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt during a mourning ceremony organised by the Popular Resistance Committees," a local militia that fought alongside the army, said provincial governor Jamal al-Aqal.
"Bodies were flying in all directions because the explosion was so powerful," a witness said.
An official at Razi hospital in Jaar said it received the bodies of 24 of those killed, while medics said 12 people had died of their wounds in three hospitals in the main southern city Aden.

Relatives took the bodies of six of the dead directly from the scene of the attack for burial, local official Mohsen bin Jamila told AFP.
Later on Sunday, Jamila told AFP that "three of the wounded have succumbed to their wounds," raising the overall death toll to 45.

Meanwhile, five militants were killed when a suspected US drone strike came near the village of Al-Qotn in Hadramawt province, another region where Al-Qaeda has been active.

"A drone fired two missiles at an all-terrain vehicle... killing its five occupants, all members of Al-Qaeda," a local official said, requesting anonymity.
Security forces sealed off the scene of the strike, witnesses said.