Senior AQAP cleric killed in U.S. drone strike in Yemen

A Yemen-based al-Qaida group said on Thursday that its senior cleric was killed in a recent U.S. drone strike in the country's southeastern province of Shabwa.

In a statement, the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said that Harith al-Nadhari was among four militants who were killed in the U.S. drone strike that took place in a mountainous area in Shabwa province on Jan. 31.

The terrorist group vowed revenge for the death of al-Nadhari, who was a senior cleric and advisor for the network, according to the statement.

On Jan. 31, a U.S. drone strike hit a car carrying several al-Qaida members in Shabwa, leaving four terrorists killed, a government official told Xinhua.

On Jan. 10, al-Nadhari who appeared in an online video praised attacks against the Charlie Hebdo magazine and at a Jewish supermarket in Paris, threatening with more attacks "if they did not stop abusing Muslims."

In the five-minute video posted by the AQAP, al-Nadhari warned France "to stop aggression against Muslims or to face more attacks as a punishment."

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

AQAP, which emerged in January 2009 and also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on some Western countries.

In 2009, AQAP claimed responsibility for an attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner by sending Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who visited Yemen and had been trained by the militants there.

Last month, Washington said it has not suspended anti-terror operations against the al-Qaida activities in Yemen following Yemen's Shiite Houthi group took over the country's capital Sanaa. Endit