SANAA, Yemen—Al-Qaeda’s arm in the Arabian Peninsula said two of the terrorist group’s operatives, including its media chief, were killed by a suspected U.S. drone in central Yemen last month.
The announcement came Sunday in a five-page obituary posted on websites typically used by the terrorist group.
It says the group’s media chief was killed along with another al-Qaeda member when a purported U.S. drone strike hit their residence in central Yemen on Feb. 26.
The CIA declined to comment on the suspected attack.
Another suspected U.S. strike on al-Qaeda operatives in January reportedly killed three in Yemen.
Al-Qaeda said Hamad al-Tamimi, the terrorist group’s media chief, was killed along with another member of the al-Qaeda branch when their house near the central Yemeni city of Marib was hit last month in an alleged U.S. strike.
In the January attack, the suspected al-Qaeda members appeared to have been killed by a Hellfire R9X, otherwise known as the “flying Ginsu” or “knife bomb,” based on images of the wreckage analyzed by the AP and weapons experts. The CIA is known to have deployed the drone against high-value targets in the past. The CIA declined to comment on the February attack when asked days after it took place.
The two attacks raise questions over the secretive U.S. drone campaign in Yemen, which started about 20 years ago.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known by its acronym AQAP, is active in several regions in Yemen, including Marib and other far-flung provinces. It is believed to be one of the more dangerous branches of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
U.N. experts believe AQAP has a few thousand members, its ranks boosted by foreign fighters.
Years of civil war, which has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition fighting to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power, have allowed al-Qaeda to maintain a presence, particularly in remote and more lawless areas of Yemen.
Yemen’s war began in 2014 when the Houthis swept down from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, along with much of the country’s north. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015. The conflict has spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and pushed impoverished Yemen to the brink of famine.
