Yemeni tribal and security officials say a suspected U.S. airstrike has killed three al-Qaida operatives on Yemen’s southern coast.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, say the operatives killed in Shabwa province on Sunday were driving a car when an unmanned aircraft targeted their vehicle.

Their bodies have not yet been identified.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, long seen by Washington as among the most dangerous branches of the global terror network, has exploited the chaos of Yemen’s civil war, seizing territory in the south and east.

(AP)