Manually added context [December 8th]:

The current UAE–US–Saudi operation in Yemen may stem from coordination following Donald Trump’s meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in mid‑November 2025.

It is very likely that U.S. forces conducted the late November and early December 2025 drone strikes in Yemen that killed senior Al‑Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders.

Since the April 2022 truce, Saudi Arabia and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) have largely avoided airstrikes in Yemen, while the U.S. has conducted counterterrorism operations against Houthis and AQAP members.

Update [December 9th]:

The two main high-value targets (HVT) of the US airstrike were AQAP senior figures:

Abu Ubaydah al-Hadrami – sharia official

Anis al-Hasali – counterintelligence and security commander

Update [December 10th]:

The current source list covers most primary Yemen-conflict stakeholders, and several cited outlets operate in tightly state-managed media environments aligned with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt.

In that context, these governments have limited incentive to inaccurately shift responsibility to Washington for strikes they did not authorize, as doing so would risk diplomatic friction with a key security partner and complicate their own regional messaging.

The absence of declassified U.S. reporting is not unexpected. President Donald Trump’s 2025 counterterrorism posture has been operationally assertive, and his first administration also reduced certain civilian-casualty transparency requirements in 2019, arguing the reporting was unnecessary.

It is also notable that this would not be the first reported U.S.-linked removal of AQAP figures in late 2025. In November, local reporting alleged that a U.S. drone strike killed Abu Muhammad al‑Sanaani in the Al‑Shabwah area. (Later verified by NewAmerica and AcledData)

What about Al Jazeera? [December 11th]:

Al Jazeera (Qatar) hasn’t reported yet on this strike or the previous one in November. UAE, Saudi, Bahrain and Egypt have all reported on it.

As mentioned before, all these countries’ political news are strictly state-narrated. This discrepancy likely stems from the political control of Marib and how each bloc views the dominant faction there: The Islah Party.

The Marib province is the last major stronghold of the internationally recognized government in the north. However, practically, it is dominated by the Islah Party (the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood).

Qatar generally supports the Muslim Brotherhood and has historically supported Islah as a legitimate political force. However, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain view the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization or a dangerous political threat. The UAE, in particular, is openly hostile to Islah.

By highlighting that Al-Qaeda operatives are active and being targeted in Marib, they subtly discredit the Islah party’s governance.

Highlighting Al-Qaeda’s presence there validates the UAE/STC accusation that Islah is tolerant of or infiltrated by extremists. Al Jazeera typically frames Marib as the heroic “last stand” of the legitimate government against the Houthis, not as a terror hub.