Sanaa, Jul 17 (IANS): Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Wednesday confirmed the death of its deputy leader Said al-Shehri in a US drone strike.
Senior AQAP figure Ibrahim al-Rubaish said in a video statement posted online that Sheikh Said al-Shehri had been killed without specifying when the strike took place, Xinhua reports.
"I present my condolences to the Mujahideen on the martyrdom of Sheikh Said al-Shehri," al-Rubaish said in the 11-minute video.
Al-Shehri, a Saudi national and AQAP's no. 2 leader, was the main target of several military raids during the past years.
He served a term in the US military prison in Guantanamo before he was deported to Saudi Arabia, from where he fled to Yemen along with hundreds of Saudi wanted militants to form the AQAP in January 2009.
The Yemeni government had announced several times that al-Shehri was killed.