US drone strike kills Yemen al-Qaida leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi
Source: The Guardian
Al-Qaida’s most powerful franchise has announced the death of its leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, in a US air strike in Yemen, the latest blow to the global jihadi organisation.
The killing of Wuhayshi, nicknamed Abu Basir and one of al-Qaida’s most charismatic leaders, was confirmed in a video statement by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The group, which is engaged in fierce fighting in Yemen with domestic opponents, is under relentless pressure from US drone strikes. Its influence appears to be waning in terms of global jihad with the advances of its rival Islamic State.
“Our Islamic nation, this was one of your champions and leaders,” said AQAP official Khaled Batarfi in the statement, which said Wuhayshi was killed along with two other militants. “In our time … the leaders of jihad have been killed. But the blood of these leaders has only increased the insistence on jihad.”
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/16/yemen-al-qaida-leader-nasir-al-wuhayshi-killed-us-drone-strike
Kareem Shaheen in Beirut
Tuesday 16 June 2015 10.33 BST
Source: Reuters
Al Qaeda deputy leader killed in U.S. bombing in Yemen
DUBAI/SANAA | BY NOAH BROWNING AND MOHAMMED GHOBARI
The deputy leader of al Qaeda, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, has been killed in a U.S. bombing in Yemen, the group said on Tuesday, removing the director of a string of attacks against the West and a man once seen as a successor to leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
A close associate of Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets, Wuhayshi, a Yemeni in his late 30s, was named by Zawahri as al Qaeda's effective number two in 2013.
With a $10 million price on his head offered by U.S. authorities, Wuhayshi was also leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and his death potentially weakens the group, widely seen as the militant network's strongest branch.
He led the group as it plotted foiled bomb attacks against international airliners and claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, calling it punishment for insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/16/us-yemen-security-qaeda-us-idUSKBN0OW0FJ20150616
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