By William Tucker
The Yemeni military has claimed via its website that former Guantanamo inmate and deputy emir of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Said al-Shihri was killed in an airstrike in Yemen’s Hadramawt province. This report has not been independently confirmed and al-Shihri has been reported dead on several occasions. Few details were given about the airstrike or how al-Shihri was identified, but if AQAP confirms the death – as they typically do when a leader is killed – it’ll be the closest thing to a secondary source. Shihri’s death will have an impact on AQAP, but probably not as profound as the Yemeni government, or the U.S. for that matter, would like. That being said, AQAP has suffered some recent set-backs due to an increase in attention from the government in Sana’a.
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