Local officials have confirmed the killing, but have declined to give any further details, beyond the farmer not being a specific target nor the usual references to a victim as a "suspect."

There was already growing anger about the US drone strikes against Yemen in recent weeks after the December attack on a wedding procession, a "signature strike" in which the US assumed the convoy of cars had to be terror related without any attempt to identify any of the people involved. The attack killed 15 civilians.

So far the US has taken the same strategy as with Pakistan, simply remaining mum on the strikes and continuing to attack whenever they feel like it. Yemen’s president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has endorsed the drone program, and there seems to be little effort by the rest of Yemen’s government to do much about the deaths.