An apparent US drone attack killed 15 people at a wedding party in central Yemen yesterday evening after mistaking them for an al-Qaeda convoy.

The strike near the town of Radaa in the province of al-Baydah targeted a convoy of up to a dozen vehicles. “There was a target, but something went wrong,” a Yemeni government official told The Times.

The official said that some al-Qaeda militants were believed to have been amongst those killed but at least a dozen of the dead are thought to be civilians. A local news website published a list naming the dead, claiming all those killed were non-militants.

Thursday night’s attack was the second botched air strike in the province of al-Baydah. Twelve civilians were killed in September