WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at
militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to
American officials.

The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the
government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power.
Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in
the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials
see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from
consolidating power.

On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative, and several other militant
suspects in a strike in southern Yemen. According to witnesses, four
civilians were also killed in the airstrike. Weeks earlier, drone
aircraft fired missiles aimed at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical
American-born cleric who the United States government has tried to kill
for more than a year. Mr. Awlaki survived.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/world/middleeast/09intel.html?hp