US drone killed top al-Qaeda leader: Official
A US drone strike has killed a top al-Qaeda commander in a southern port city of Yemen, according to a group operative and an American official.
Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi, who played a key role in the group’s terror operation in Yemen, was killed in a drone attack last month, CNN reported on Thursday.
Al-Qaeda operative Khaled Batarfi appeared in a video obtained by CNN on Thursday announcing Ansi’s death.
Also, an American official told CNN that he is dead but did not confirm that he was killed in a US drone strike.
Ansi, who is believed to have been close to the late al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, claimed that the terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7 was the work of the group.
He was one of the group’s spokesman, a senior military strategist and the second senior leader of the terrorist group killed so far.
In April, Ibrahim al-Rubaish died in what was described by a group media wing, Al-Malahem Media, as a "crusader airstrike."
Rubaish was a combat commander, who was once held by the US at its controversial detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was released into the custody of Saudi authorities and then escaped in 2006.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter refused to elaborate on the strike. “We just don’t talk about those, and certainly not from this podium”.
The al-Qaeda militants have exploited the volatile atmosphere and the breakdown of security in Yemen since Saudi Arabia’s air campaign started on March 26, without a UN mandate, in a bid to restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
The US carries out targeted killings through drone strikes in Yemen and several other Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia.
The United Nations and several human rights organizations have identified the US as the world’s number-one user of “targeted killings,” largely due to its drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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