Reports say a leading Al-Qaeda operative in Yemen has been killed in a family dispute, and that an ensuing battle has left at least 16 other tribesmen dead.
Yemeni security officials said the clashes erupted after Tareq al-Dahab was killed early on February 16 by his half-brother in the southern town of Al-Masaneh, a family fiefdom in Bayda Province.
The killer and other family members are reported to be among those killed in the fighting.
No cause for the bloodshed was immediately cited.
Tareq al-Dahab was a relative of Al-Qaeda’s spiritual leader in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. air strike last year.
Compiled from agency reports