The aircraft went down after it struck Shoab Mountain near the city of Beihan in the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa on Tuesday, witnesses and local residents said.

A local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yemeni troops and members of a local government-allied militia group quickly surrounded the area of the crash to keep onlookers away.

Washington has acknowledged using assassination drones as part of its official targeted killing campaign in Muslim countries to eliminate what it regards as militants. However, it does not comment publicly on individual cases of the aerial bombing campaign.

The US administration claims that its assassination drones target al-Qaeda militants, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned airstrikes.

In February, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Washington to investigate a fatal drone strike on a wedding ceremony in Yemen in December 2013. The HRW said in a report, dubbed “A Wedding That Became a Funeral: US Drone Attack on Marriage Procession in Yemen,” that the December 12, 2013, attack killed a dozen men and wounded at least 15 others, including the bride.

Last October, the HRW said the US drone strikes in Yemen had led to the death of many civilians over the past years in a blatant violation of international law.

source: presstv