Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on Wednesday confirmed that its second-in-command, Saeed al-Shehri, had been killed in a US airstrike in Yemen, dpa reported.
Ibrahim al-Rubaish, a senior AQAP leader, said in a video posted on a jihadist website that al-Shehri had been killed in an attack by a US drone in Yemen. He did not say when the attack occurred.
The Yemeni government said in January that al-Shehri, also known as Abu Sufyan, had been killed in an air raid.
"He (al-Shehri) has left behind a generation of jihadists to liberate the Arabian Peninsula from the sacrilege of America and its agents," said al-Rubaish.
Al-Shehri, born in Saudi Arabia, had fought in Afghanistan. He is believed to have been behind a series of abductions of foreigners, including a Saudi diplomat, in Yemen.