Al-Qaida in Yemen confirms death of its leader in U.S. drone attack

The Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Tuesday confirmed that its leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi had been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.

In an online video, an AQAP spokesman confirmed that Nasir al-Wuhayshi, along with two of his aids, had been killed in a U.S. drone strike. However, he did not reveal when and where.

The statement also said Qasim al-Raimi, AQAP military commander, had been elected by the group's Shura council to replace al-Wuhayshi.

Al-Wuhayshi was killed along with several al-Qaida members in Mukalla city, the provincial capital of Yemen's southeastern Hadramount province on Friday, two security officials based in Sanaa told Xinhua on Monday. They asked to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to speak to media.

Local media have also confirmed Al-Wuhayshi's death.

It is a heavy blow to the al-Qaida branch in Yemen, which is considered by Washington as the most dangerous terrorist network in the Middle East. Wuhayshi was named in 2013 as al-Qaida's second-in-command and apparent heir to top leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Al-Wuhayshi, born in Yemen's southern province of al-Bayda, served as Osama bin Laden's personal secretary during 1990s. He fled Afghanistan to Iran in 2002, where he was arrested and repatriated to Yemen. He had been jailed in Sanaa until he escaped along with 22 other prisoners in February 2006 through a 44-meter tunnel.

He established AQAP in 2009 after the merger of Saudi and Yemeni branches, and declared in July 2011 the group's allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of al-Qaida's global network, after the death of its founder Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Under his leadership, the AQAP carried out a number of attacks on some Western countries, including a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner and attacks against the weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris earlier this year. Endi